Best world city to study in?

Best world city to study in?

News

norman lebrecht

July 30, 2021

QS has issued its authoritative annual rankings.

Apparently, London is best, Munich second, Seoul and Tokyo joint third and Berlin fifth.

That seems astonishing given the very high cost of living on London, but the stats don’t lie.

 

Here are some geeky notes:
Seoul achieves a higher score than London’s 98.2/100 in QS’s Rankings indicator, which
measures the number and quality of universities in a given city. Though London is home to two
of the world’s ten best universities – as per the most recent QS World University Rankings –
Seoul is home to 21 ranked institutions, to London’s 18.
 London ranks 2 nd (98.4/100) in QS’s Student Voice metric. Acting as an authoritative source of
peer review on the student experience, the results are based on the opinions of over 95,000
students regarding their time spent in a given city. Only Berlin receives more positive feedback
than London from students that have studied there.
 London falls to 4 th in the Employer Activity indicator (92.9/100), which measures youth
unemployment rates and graduate employer recognition for each city. Tokyo is the global #1 for
this indicator, bolstered by minimal youth unemployment rates.
 London has risen to 5 th (95.9/100) in QS’s Student Mix metric. This captures the size and diversity
of a city’s student population. Australian cities – with Melbourne as the global leader – excel in
this indicator.
 London has also benefitted from a slight improvement in QS’s Affordability indicator. However,
this metric remains London’s only metric-level weakness; it ranks 95 th for Affordability. The top-
ranked cities in the overall table typically perform poorly for Affordability due to high costs-of-
living and elevated tuition fees. For example: Kuala Lumpur and Kazan (joint-31 st and joint-102 nd
in the overall table) are the top two for this indicator.
 

Comments

  • John Borstlap says:

    Real life in London is so terrible that students simply have to fully concentrate on practicing to escape into the music, to be able to stick it out. This is the reason London produces so many good students. This is not my opinion but I got this from well-known experts like [redacted] and [redacted], although [redacted] refused to be named, to prevent status reduction.

    There is another explanation: that it is the food that is so excellent and cheap, but there should be some doubt about this.

  • Petros Linardos says:

    It all depends on a person’s field of study, specific needs, personality, priorities. How can one possibly compare, say, London to Detmold?

  • Roy Thames says:

    This ranking is made by Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company. In the same way no one trusts British critics when reviewing British orchestras or artists because their extreme chauvinism I will take the metrics making this ranking with a pinch of salt

    • Tom Phillips says:

      Of all the classical music reviewers I have read from Americans, Canadians and all the East and West European nations, the British ones always stand out for their extreme national chauvinism (more in regards to performers than composers). Nowhere else does one see such incessant questioning “of why was this bloody foreigner hired” for conductors, soloists etc. The late Harold Rosenthal, editor of Opera Magazine, perhaps being the quintessential example.

  • BigSir says:

    Pretty much of a joke. Check out US News rankings for something more believable.

    • Allen says:

      It’s sensible to treat all rankings with a pinch of salt. I certainly wouldn’t regard US rankings as superior in any way whatsoever.

  • Gary Freer says:

    Nonsense, like all these ranking tables.

  • MacroV says:

    Seoul and Tokyo sound interesting, but is that Koreans and Japanese making that judgment?

    We decided on Montreal – hard to beat McGill, English and French, cost of living is reasonable, good health care, and you have a small mountain in the center of town. And one of the world’s greatest orchestras if that’s your thing. What’s not to like?

    • The View from America says:

      All of those Seoul educational institutions possess one thing no one else has: They’re just 45 miles from the North Korean border. It’s wonderful having all that culture so close by.

  • Nick says:

    ….”but the stats don’t lie….?!? Ha-ha!!! Stats are the best liars there are!!

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    Melbourne is a dreadful city. Freezing in winter, boiling in summer, HUGE energy costs, crowded and with few appealing spaces outside the immediate CBD and surrounds. And no surf!!

  • Gustavo says:

    World cities are not the best kind of places in the World – the epicentres of pandemics giving rise to novel pathogenes and contributing significantly global environmental change.

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