Best world city to study in?
NewsQS 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.
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.
It all depends on a person’s field of study, specific needs, personality, priorities. How can one possibly compare, say, London to Detmold?
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
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.
Pretty much of a joke. Check out US News rankings for something more believable.
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.
Nonsense, like all these ranking tables.
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?
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.
….”but the stats don’t lie….?!? Ha-ha!!! Stats are the best liars there are!!
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!!
Admittedly my visit was short, but what an extraordinary CBD and surrounds!
Given your overall track record on this site, I imagine it’s probably a glorious place to live.
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.
I assume you are including Wuhan in that?