Universities are a key element in preventing any form of discrimination. Therefore, the United Nations 2030 Agenda recognizes their role through goal 4 regarding the quality of education. The 2030 agenda also includes goals 5 and 10, regarding gender equity and reducing inequalities as cross-cutting elements to boost social inclusion. The purpose of this research is to carry out a multivariate and dynamic analysis of the most outstanding universities in the global list of the THE Impact Rankings, which is the only tool that classifies these institutions in terms of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to study how they are positioned in the indicators related to inequality. We also examine its evolution in the last three years and the relationship between goals 4, 5, and 10. The results show that less than half of the leading universities in sustainability carry out an active social inclusion policy. Additionally, most of them underwent significant changes in their trajectories to approach the indicator of gender equity. The research suggests there is still a long way to go to achieve social justice.

Primary education is a critical stage in every student’s education, mainly because they get the base of their scientific education during this time. Knowing how they access the different subjects related to such content, their level of prior knowledge, their predisposition to learning, and how they can transfer it can be vital to establishing motivation and interest in scientific knowledge. Moreover, this kind of competence involves understanding reality from a scientific point of view and encourages prudent and responsible decision-making in other situations in everyday life. That is why this research aimed to design and determine the reliability and validity of a test that evaluated the scientific competence of primary school (COCIP). This way, after a long and thorough bibliographic review, a test that included 30 items divided into 6 categories was constructed. Subsequently, experts were consulted, and they gave positive feedback on the test. After this, a pilot study with 20 students was conducted and allowed us to make some modifications. Finally, the instrument was applied to a sample of 709 students in the sixth grade of primary school. The reliability analysis was estimated using internal consistency analysis, and each item’s technical quality was studied using the Rasch model of Theory of Item Answering. The results and their analysis show that the test is original, innovative, and has good psychometric characteristics, making it a reliable and valid instrument for measuring scientific competence. La etapa de Educación Primaria es esencial en la formación del alumnado, en parte porque en ella se recibe la base de su educación científica. Saber cómo acceden a las distintas materias relacionadas con dicho contenido, cuál es su nivel de conocimiento previo, su predisposición al aprendizaje y cómo son capaces de transferirlo, puede resultar clave para instaurar motivación e interés por el conocimiento científico. Además, la competencia científica conlleva el entendimiento de la realidad desde la evidencia científica y permite tomar decisiones responsables en la vida. Por ello, el propósito fue diseñar y determinar la fiabilidad y validez de un cuestionario de evaluación de la competencia científica en Educación Primaria (COCIP). Así, tras una amplia y exhaustiva revisión bibliográfica, se construyó un cuestionario compuesto por 30 ítems divididos en seis bloques. Posteriormente, se realizó la consulta a jueces expertos, quienes valoraron positivamente la adecuación del cuestionario. A continuación, se realizó un estudio piloto con 20 estudiantes, el cual permitió hacer algunas mejoras del cuestionario. Finalmente, se aplicó el instrumento a una muestra de 709 estudiantes de sexto de Educación Primaria. El análisis de la confiabilidad se calculó a través del análisis de su consistencia interna, y la calidad técnica de cada ítem se analizó a través del modelo de Rasch de la Teoría de Respuesta al Ítem. Los resultados y el análisis permiten concluir que la prueba es original, novedosa y presenta unas buenas propiedades psicométricas, calificándola como un instrumento fiable y válido para medir la competencia científica.

El Ranking de Shanghai (ARWU) ha alcanzado tal prestigio que una buena posición en esta lista está asociada a calidad y reputación. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar si las universidades clasificadas en ARWU muestran el mejor desempeño académico. Se han seleccionado las tasas de Rendimiento, Graduación y Abandono de los estudiantes de Grado de las universidades españolas. Se ha realizado un análisis multivariante a través del método HJ-Biplot, estudiando el comportamiento respecto a estas tasas de las universidades que aparecen en el ranking. Los resultados prueban que ocupar los primeros puestos en Shanghai no garantiza los mejores resultados en el desempeño académico. La calidad universitaria debe abordarse, por tanto, desde una perspectiva multidimensional, en función de la estrategia que cada institución se marque para dar respuesta a sus misiones.

Global rankings help boost the international reputation of universities, which thus attempt to achieve good positions on them. These rankings attract great interest each year and are followed attentively by stakeholders in higher education. This paper investigates the trajectory of Spanish universities in the ARWU and THE rankings over the last 5 years using the dynamic biplot technique to study the relationship between a multivariate dataset obtained at more than one time point. The results demonstrate that Spanish universities achieve low positions on international rankings when analyzed using this multivariate and dynamic approach. Indeed, only a small percentage occupy good positions in both studied rankings and stand out in terms of some of the indicators, whereas most achieve weak scores in the global context. Spanish universities should attempt to improve this situation, since the prestige resulting from a good position on these lists will always be beneficial in terms of the visibility of both the universities themselves and the whole Spanish university system.

Key competences have become the transversal axis of our educational system. After comple[1]ting Compulsory Secondary Education, students must have acquired an average level in each of the competences. The purpose of the study is to discover the academic self-efficacy of students in Extremadura regarding the acquisition of key competences upon completion of compulsory secondary education by observing the differences that exist based on gender—male, female and non-binary. For this purpose, a quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive-inferential study is pre[1]sented, with a sample of 1,106 4th (final) year ESO [Compulsory Secondary Education] students from public and state-supported private schools in Extremadura (N = 11.10%) to whom the KEY[1]COMSE questionnaire was applied, which was designed ad hoc to meet the research objectives. The results indicate significant differences, with females declaring higher academic self-efficacy in linguistic competence, multilingual competence, digital competence, personal, social and learning to learn competence, and cultural awareness and expression competence. Conversely, the non-binary group presents low levels of academic self-efficacy in relation to the development of key competences as a whole, with the exception of multilingual competence. Finally, it is especia[1]lly important to point out that obtaining students’ views on their academic self-efficacy, observing gender differences, can contribute to identifying the most appropriate teaching-learning strategies for equitable education, thus improving educational quality.