Best student cities in the world 2024
From London to New York, Sydney to Paris, which city is officially the best to live in as a student? We'll reveal them all...
Credit: Blue Planet Studio (left), Bucchi Francesco (right) – Shutterstock
While choosing a good university for your course is essential when deciding where to study or do a year abroad, the city you choose to live in is pretty important too. This is especially the case as you could end up getting a graduate job there when you're finished.
Whether you're after a city with good nightlife or a place with plenty of job opportunities, making the right choice is crucial.
Which cities are best for students? The annual QS Student City rankings have the lowdown.
What's in this guide?
What are the QS Student City rankings?
The annual QS World University Rankings are considered among the most widely read and authoritative education rankings out there. Back in 2014, they also started releasing an annual Student Cities Ranking.
Every year they list over 100 cities that offer the best student experience, based on a number of factors:
- University rankings – The quality and number of institutions in that city
- Student mix – The number of students in the city, particularly international students
- Desirability – How appealing a city is perceived to be, based on things like safety and opportunities available
- Employer activity – Whether top graduate employers tend to recruit students from the city
- Affordability – Based on the cost of tuition fees and living costs
- Student view – The experiences of other students living in that city, collected via an annual survey.
While other surveys and rankings tend to focus on the best individual universities, the Student Cities rankings look at the bigger picture and rank cities based on the overall student experience.
In the past, winners have included Paris and Montreal. But which is the latest city to come out on top?
What is the world's best student city?
Drumroll, please... The best student city in the world for 2024 is London!
With an overall score of 100, London has secured the number one spot since 2018. The only factor London scores relatively low for is affordability, but it receives high scores for all other ranking indicators.
Best student cities in the world
Here's the complete top 20 list of the best student cities in the world:
- London, United Kingdom
- Tokyo, Japan
- Seoul, South Korea
- Melbourne, Australia
- Munich, Germany
- Paris, France
- Sydney, Australia
- Berlin, Germany
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Boston, USA
- Toronto, Canada
- Vienna, Austria
- Montreal, Canada
- Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe, Japan
- Singapore, Singapore
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- New York, USA
- Vancouver, Canada
- Lausanne, Switzerland
- San Francisco, USA.
London scores well for its high-quality universities, but its top score comes for student view. Second-place Tokyo has one of the best scores for employer activity and is also rated highly for its 'desirability' as a city. Seoul comes in a close third place, with top marks for its universities.
Interestingly, only three US cities appear in the top 20. That's despite American universities dominating the QS ranking of universities by graduate employability.
A lot of European cities are placed towards the top of the table too. This includes Berlin, where you can do a free master's course.
Australia also did well in the city rankings, with Melbourne in fourth and Sydney in seventh place. They scored particularly highly for having a diverse mix of students. If you're interested in going to uni there, read our guide to studying in Australia.
Best student cities in the UK
As you probably noticed, London and Edinburgh are the only UK cities to make the global top 20. But that doesn't mean they're the only cities in the country to be considered some of the best.
Here are the 10 best student cities in the UK*:
- London (1)
- Edinburgh (16)
- Manchester (joint 30)
- Glasgow (36)
- Newcastle Upon Tyne (joint 39)
- Bristol (joint 44)
- Coventry (joint 44)
- Birmingham (49)
- Nottingham (52)
- Leeds (55).
* World ranking is shown in brackets.
Despite London taking the top spot, a lot of the best UK cities for students are in Scotland and the North of England.
Birmingham, the UK's second-biggest city, came in eighth (49th in the world). It was beaten by big northern cities such as Manchester and Newcastle.
And Scotland has three cities in the global top 100: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Cheapest student cities in the world
One of the biggest considerations for students when choosing where to study or do a year abroad is the cost. A city might be amazing, but if you can't afford to pay your rent or have a social life, it's not going to be much fun.
Filtering the cities by affordability, these are the top ten cheapest cities for students*:
- Yogyakarta, Indonesia (126)
- Astana, Kazakhstan (121)
- Almaty, Kazakhstan (81)
- Surabaya, Indonesia (145)
- Bandung, Indonesia (133)
- Shah Alam, Malaysia (joint 115)
- Timisoara, Romania (151-160)
- Izmir, Turkey (151-160)
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (joint 24)
- Subang Jaya, Malaysia (114)
* Overall ranking is shown in brackets.
If you're looking to live as cheaply as possible, you'll have to sacrifice some of the other factors which make cities so student-friendly. The only city that also ranks in the overall top 30 is Kuala Lumpur.
If you're looking to stay at home, the best UK city for affordability is Belfast (joint 60th in the overall rankings).
If you're not sure about studying, why not take a gap year instead? Here are some great gap year ideas to get you inspired.
