Montreal has been named the world’s best city for students, beating out London, Berlin, Boston and Tokyo in a global ranking of 125 cities.
Montreal’s desirability, affordability and students’ positive perception of their time studying there propelled it from seventh place last year to top spot in 2017, knocking Paris from the first-place ranking it held for the last five years.
Recent global events like Brexit and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump may also have played a factor in Montreal’s ascension, said global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, which compiled the rankings. Paris fell to second place this year, followed by London (England), Seoul, Melbourne, Berlin and Tokyo. Vancouver placed in 10thspot, while Toronto was 11th.
Montreal’s position was based largely on the ranking’s new “Student View” indicator, which polled both students who were studying or had studied in a city vs. those who thought they might like to study there. The viewpoints between the two were often very different.
“A lot of people want to study in London, but those who have studied in London don’t necessarily have as positive an experience as they do in other places,” said Ben Sowter, head of research for QS. “It seems likely that smaller, friendlier places are a little more popular in the student view context than bigger, more cosmopolitan places that are more popular in the desirability context.”
Ottawa was ranked the top student city among the 18,000 international students surveyed for the “Student View” indicator.
Montreal’s position is based on six rankings: quality of universities in the city (McGill ranked 24thin the world and 1stin Canada in the 2016 QS university rankings); student mix (27 per cent of students at Montreal’s ranked universities are international); employer activity, which looks at how local and international employers see the graduates of a city’s universities; desirability of the city; affordability and the aforementioned student view indicator.
Despite Montreal’s low tuition rates ($2,328 for an academic year) and relatively low housing costs, it ranked 39thon the affordability scale. It compared favourably, however, to other cities in the Top 10 like Paris, which ranked 77th, and London, which was 105th.
With the city’s positive economic outlook according to the Conference Board of Canada, strong performance in the student indicators and university rankings and the highly attractive international nature of the city, “all things seem to be lining up to put Montreal in a strong position going forward,” Sowter said.
Given the global competition for the best brains in the world and Canada’s relatively high standing these days, it’s time for Montreal to capitalize on its high rankings to enhance its future, Concordia University president Alan Shepard argued.
“Talented scholars and knowledge workers looking to learn and settle in a tolerant, progressive country are running out of options,” Shepard writes in an opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette. Studies show Donald Trump’s election and Brexit have made the U.S. and the United Kingdom less desirable places to study in the minds of many. Canada’s positive rankings in terms of social mobility and opportunities for immigrants, as well as its welcoming attitude make it not only a good place to study, but an inviting place for graduates to stay. Montreal needs to attract and keep those assets by launching social media campaigns, offering language and cultural immersion courses and recognizing accreditation equivalencies, Shepard writes.
“How we build Brand Canada during this historic opportunity could determine our future for generations to come.”