London Tops Global Student Cities Ranking For Fifth Consecutive Year- Study In UK

The 11th edition of the QS Best Student Cities ranking has just been released and it again puts London at the top of the table of 160 destination cities around the world. To be ranked, a city must have a minimum population of 250,000 and be home to at least two universities in the QS World University Ranking.

The city rankings are based on survey responses from more than 110,000 prospective international students in 194 countries. As QS explains, there are six ranking factors, each of which is given an equal weight of 16.67% in the overall scoring:

“QS World University Rankings – A category aimed to reflect the collective performance of a city’s universities in the QS World University Rankings.

Student Mix – This assesses the student make-up of a city such as on-campus diversity, both overall and from an international perspective.

Desirability – With a broad spectrum of datasets, this is used to indicate how desirable a destination is as a whole, ranging from safety to pollution.

Employer Activity – In this indicator, two factors are considered that are derived from the QS Graduate Employability Rankings, examining which cities are the most highly sought-after employment grounds for graduates.

Affordability – From tuition fees to the cost of living, the affordability indicator measures how cost-effective a city is most likely to be for prospective students and their families.

Student Voice – Using findings from our yearly QS International Student Survey, we incorporate the views that students have on their experience studying abroad.”

Tokyo was the big gainer, moving up from the 7th spot last year to become the 2nd-ranked city in the 2024 table. While London captures the top spot for the fifth year running, Asia and Europe are well represented and Canada and the US each have three cities in the 20 as well.

The complete list of the top 20 ranked cities is as follows;

1. London
2. Tokyo
3. Seoul
4. Melbourne
5. Munich
6. Paris
7. Sydney
8. Berlin (tied for 8th spot)
9. Zurich (tied for 8th spot)
10. Boston
11. Toronto
12. Vienna
13. Montreal
14. Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe
15. Singapore
16. Edinburgh
17. New York
18. Vancouver
19. Lausanne
20. San Francisco

QS’s “Best Student Cities” ranking for 2023 has been released, and it is informed by the perceptions of more than 98,000 current and former students. This year, 110 cities were evaluated – all of which had to have a population of at least 250,000 to qualify. Several factors contribute to the overall ranking of a city, such as affordability, desirability (perceptions of current students), the feedback of former students, the presence of employers, and the number of highly ranked universities.

According to QS, London, England, is the best city in the world for students, followed by Seoul and Munich (tied for 2nd), Zurich, Melbourne, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, and Edinburgh.

The rankings’ methodology is designed to produce a holistic assessment of a city, taking into account the following:

• QS World University Rankings 2023
• Student mix (diversity of student population, how welcoming it is to international students)
• Desirability (safety, pollution levels, proportion of students who picked that city as their preferred destination)
• Employment (youth employment rate, employers’ perceptions of graduates from the city’s universities)
• Affordability (cost of living and tuition)
• Student voice (opinions about a city’s friendliness, its approach to sustainability, internationalization, and more)

London topped the charts for the third consecutive year by “receiving exceptional scores” for the diversity of its student mix, students’ feedback on their overall experience in London, the number of world-class universities in the city, and “employer activity.” It made it to #1 despite placing poorly on the affordability aspect of the rankings. Ben Sowter, QS Senior VP, said,

“Responses to our surveys from students that have studied in London make it clear that it offers outstanding cultural, economic, and educational opportunities. With two of the world’s ten best universities situated in the city, it remains a world-leading educational hub. Worryingly, cities are broadly becoming less affordable for students by QS’ measures, with just under 90% declining in our Affordability metric.”

The full top 20 are:

1. London
2. Seoul and Munich (tied for 2nd)
3. Zurich
4. Melbourne
5. Berlin
6. Tokyo
7. Paris
8. Sydney
9. Edinburgh
10. Boston
11. Hong Kong
12. Singapore
13. Montreal
14. Toronto
15. Vienna
16. Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe
17. New York
18. Lausanne
19. Vancouver

Overall, seven of the top 20 are in Europe, two are in Australia, three are in Canada, two are in the US, and four are in Asia.

Asia did well on the overall list, with 25 cities making the ranking – seven of them for the first time.