Best Cities for Students to Live in This Year

British company ‘QS Quacquarelli Symonds’ published its annual rating of the world’s best cities for students, topped by Paris, with Moscow, the only Russian nominee, taking 43rd place.

MOSCOW, November 25 (Sputnik) — UK-based enterprise ‘QS Quacquarelli Symonds’ compiled a ranking of the most student-friendly cities in the world titled ‘QS Best Student Cities 2015’ with Paris, France topping the list and Moscow, Russia rated 43rd, locked between Washington, DC and Santiago, Chile.

The cities were evaluated against several criteria. First and foremost, the city must have a population over 250,000 and no less than two institutions of higher education featured on another list, the QS University ranking. In some cases, cities with metropolitan areas were considered to meet the population and qualifying university criteria. Thus, the 50-position rating was compiled out of 116 qualifying cities, as outlined in the research.

The methodology behind the study has been modified, as compared to the previous year’s rating. The five main criteria have remained the same: university prestige, tuition fee affordability, lifestyle appeal, employment prospects and student community. However, for the new edition, five new standards were added to the mix: pollution, safety transparency, tolerance and a special score based on Global Livability Ranking by the Economist’s Intel Unit. Thus, the overall amount of measurement indicators has increased to 18, divided into five larger categories. Each city has obtained a score on each of the larger criteria, as well as a total score and rank.

In 2015, Paris tops the ranking as the most student-friendly city, followed by Australia’s Melbourne. Expensive living costs in London caused its ranking to fall from second to third place. Russia’s only city on the list, Moscow, has descended by five positions on the list, down to 43. However, cost of living in Moscow (19th place) is ranked as cheaper than Paris (23rd). The cheapest cities are Taipei, Mexico city and Berlin.

“[The cities data] provides students with a complementary tool to university rankings. After all, a university experience is intrinsically influenced by the location,” Ben Sowter of QS told the Guardian.

29 nations are present on the top-50 list, among which are the US (8 cities), Australia (6), the UK (4), Canada (3) and Japan (3).

“However, affordability is a key factor for many international students and thus for us here as well, and perhaps due to the relative strength of the UK economy, more than half of London’s dropped points are in this category,” Sowter said.

Asia’s most student-friendly city is Hong Kong (5th), up two positions compared to last year. Singapore, Asia’s-best in 2014, slid down to 15th place. Other Asian cities on the list are Tokyo (7th) and Seoul (10th), whilst Taipei (25th) is ahead of mainland’s Beijing (26th) and Shanghai (32nd).

"Internationalisation is more than attracting overseas students," Hong Kong’s educational legislator Ip Kin-yuen said as quoted by South China Morning Post. "Sometimes, we see that local students … do not seem to be interested in making friends with those from different cultural backgrounds."

QS Quacquarelli Symonds started the ranking in 2012.

The Top 10 Most Student-Friendly cities are:
(2014 rankings in parentheses):
 1. Paris (1)
 2. Melbourne (5)
 3. London (2)
 4. Sydney (4)
 5. Hong Kong (7)
 6. Boston (8)
 7. Tokyo (17)
 8. Montreal (9)
 9. Toronto (13)
 10. Seoul (14)