Brno, June 24 (BD) – Popular rankings published by the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) determine the best student cities in the world. A new category added this year reflects a purely students’ view and it turned out that Czech Republic is a favorite place for many students. Photo: Fotolia
Brno ranked fourth globally; Prague came second. The best student city in the world is according to students Canadian Ottawa. The top 5 is completed by Shanghai and Montréal.
Brno gets extremely strong ratings for tolerance and openness and ease of getting around; the city scores very well for both affordability and nightlife, too.
The results for the brand new Student View category based on ratings from students and fresh graduates are surprising, suggesting that the most iconic and popular cities (think London, Paris, NYC…) do not necessarily live up to expectations, while lesser-demanded or smaller cities often make for happier students.
In December 2016 and January 2017, over 18,000 students and recent graduates rated their city in eight categories: art and culture, affordability, nightlife, employment opportunities, diversity, tolerance and inclusion, ease of getting around, and friendliness.
“Respondents praised the attractiveness of Brno, as well as the large and friendly student community,” QS writes. Prague scores strong for the its beauty, location in the heart of Europe, ease of getting around, low living costs and wide range of things to do, see, eat and drink.
Brno is an important center of higher education, with 13 universities located in the city and about 80,000 students. Some of the best-ranked Czech universities are in Brno, such as Masaryk University and Brno University of Technology, both of which feature in the QS World University Rankings® 2016-2017 and the EECA (Emerging Europe and Central Asia) rankings.
Read more recent story (May 16, 2018): Brno among top 5 best world cities for students again!
