QS Best Student Cities Rankings 2022
Announced: the world’s best student cities for 2022
With the world’s students seeking to resume their international study plans, QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, have today released the ninth edition of the QS Best Student Cities Ranking.
The results, which enable students to compare 115 premier educational destinations, see London retain its status as the world’s best student city for the third consecutive edition. It is followed by Munich, which rises from 4th to 2nd. Seoul, which jumps from 10th to joint-3rd, shares the bronze-medal position with Olympic hosts Tokyo.
London’s ascendency is due to:
- Its high concentration of world-class universities; it achieves the world’s second-best score in the Rankings indicator.
- Highly positive feedback from students that have studied in the city: it scores 98.4/100 for Student View, a result bettered only by Berlin.
- Outstanding career opportunities for graduates: it places 4th in the Employer Activity metric, scoring 92.9/100.
- Its high levels of openness to international students, which see it achieve the world’s fifth-best score (95.9/100) for Student Mix.
Other highlights from this year’s edition include:
- Boston is the only new entrant into the top ten, rising from 13th to joint-9th. It shares the position with previously perennial table-toppers Paris (down two spots) and Montreal (down three places).
- Germany and Australia are the only locations to have two of the world’s ten best student cities each.
- The United States’ 15 ranked cities are suffering from a systemic decline in the Desirability indicator.
- Latin America’s number-one student destination is Buenos Aires (22nd, up nine ranks year-on-year).
- Switzerland’s Lausanne enjoys a noteworthy debut in the rankings, placing 19th.
- Moscow and Beijing break into the top thirty, sharing 25th-position.
- Driven by declines in Employer Activity, five of Australia’s seven ranked cities have fallen.
- All three of Spain’s ranked cities suffer double-digit drops in rank.
Ben Sowter, QS Director of Research, said: “Responses to our surveys from students that have actually studied in London make it clear that the city still 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. However, exponentially-increasing COVID cases and lingering Brexit effects may serve to undermine London’s privileged position.”
| QS Best Student Cities Ranking 2022: Top Ten | |||
| Rank 2022 | Rank 2019 | City | Location |
| 1 | 1 | London | UK |
| 2 | 4 | Munich | Germany |
| 3= | 10 | Seoul | South Korea |
| 3= | 2 | Tokyo | Japan |
| 5 | 5 | Berlin | Germany |
| 6 | 3 | Melbourne | Australia |
| 7 | 8 | Zurich | Switzerland |
| 8 | 9 | Sydney | Australia |
| 9= | 7 | Paris | France |
| 9= | 6 | Montreal | Canada |
| 9= | 13 | Boston | US |
| (C) QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2021 https://www.TopUniversities.com/ . All rights reserved. |
QS rank cities with a population of at least 250,000, and with at least two universities placing in the QS World University Rankings. The ranking offers a powerful lens into the sentiments of both prospective and former students, with over 95,000 survey responses contributing to the Desirability (prospective students) and Student View (former students) indexes.
Methodology: https://www.topuniversities.com/best-student-cities/methodology.
Full rankings: www.TopUniversities.com.
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