The ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is one of the most disseminated ranking in the world. The ranking system works in groups inside of which the institutions are alphabetised. 

The ten best Spanish universities list is identical to last year's and so is the groups they are in. University of Barcelona remains in the same position in the 151-200 group, followed by Universitat de València in the 201-300 group. After it, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Autonomous University of Madrid, Complutense University of Madrid, Pompeu Fabra University, University of Granada and University of the Basque Country are in the 301-400 group, and the Politechnical University of València and the Politechnical University of Sevilla remain in the 401-500 group.

This list analyses six indicators: Nobel Prize or Fields Medal-winning students (10 %), Nobel or Fields-winning professors (20 %), research quooting (20 %), articles in Nature and Science (20 %), academic perfomance per student (10 %) and projects in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Science Citation (20 %). This year, the UV has improved its placing in the Nature and Science publication indicator.

For the 2025 edition, the Jiao Tong University of Shanghai has examined over 2500 institutions and promoted the best 1000. The ranking lead goes for Harvard University for 23 years in a row, followed by Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The remaining top ten universities are Cambridge University, Berkeley University, Oxford Univerity, Princeton University, Columbia University, Caltech University andthe University of Chicago.