Canada shines in Best Student Cities ranking

A global ranking by QS of the Best Student Cities in 2014 puts Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver all in the top quartile of those considered.

The top 50 rankings considered 14 factors including how highly the city’s schools are ranked, what proportion of residents are students, results of two major quality of life surveys, popularity with domestic and global employers and cost of living.

QS says it considered 98 cities this year. All of those considered had more than 250,000 people and at least two universities ranked in the QS World University Ranking, ruling out places like Edmonton and Halifax, although Ottawa would qualify and doesn’t appear in the top 50.

Here are the top 10 cities, plus the rankings of the Canadian cities that made the top 50.

Paris 1

London 2

Singapore 3

Sydney 4

Zurich 5

Melbourne 5

Hong Kong 7

Boston 8

Montreal 9

Munich 10

Toronto 13

Vancouver 21