Christchurch 81st student city in the world

 London – London, Munich, Seoul and Tokyo are the best student cities in the world according to the QS  Quacquarelli  Symonds rankings just released.

The  global higher education analysts QS the world’s students are seeking to resume their international study plans which have been halted by the covid pandemic.

Auckland, down four places, is placed 31st best student city in the world and Christchurch 81st in the world. No other New Zealand university made the rankings.

The results, which enable students to compare 115 premier global educational destinations, see London retain its status as the world’s best student city for the third consecutive time.

Munich has climbed two places while Seoul jumps from 10th to joint third with the Olympic hosts Tokyo.

London’s ascendency is due to its high concentration of world-class universities and highly positive feedback from students that have studied in the UK city

London also showed outstanding career opportunities for graduates, placing it fourth in the employer activity metric. Its high levels of openness to international students sees the UK capital achieve the world’s fifth-best score for student mix.

With two of the world’s ten best universities situated in London, the city remains a world-leading educational hub. However, exponentially-increasing covid cases and lingering Brexit effects may serve to undermine London’s privileged position.

Boston is the only new entrant into the top 10, climbing from 13th to joint ninth. 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 10 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 30, 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.

The ranking offers a powerful lens into the sentiments of prospective and former students, with more than 95,000 survey responses contributing to the desirability (prospective students) and student view (former students) indexes.   The full rankings are here.