Melbourne has once again outranked Sydney as a preferred city in Australia for students according to the latest QS Best Student Cities Rankings.
The 2019 QS Best Student Cities Rankings has ranked UK's capital London as the world's best city for students for the second consecutive year, beating international cities like Tokyo and Melbourne that came second and third respectively on new worldwide rankings released on Wednesday.
The 'QS Best Student Cities Ranking' compiled by global education consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds highlights each city's performance based on a range of indicators including student mix, desirability, employer activity, affordability, student view, and how universities in each city performed in the QS World University Rankings.
2019 International Student Survey found that 81% of respondents looked for a city that was safe and welcoming for international students, 62% looked at the city’s cost of living, and 61% looked for a city that had universities with high-quality teaching.
Additionally, 59% looked for a city where they could work while studying, highlighting the importance of allowing international students to work on student visas.
According to the rankings, Australia’s best student city is Melbourne ranked at number three on the global list with Sydney coming in second (ranked at number nine globally).
Brisbane (22nd), Canberra (23rd), Adelaide (26th), Perth (41st) and Gold Coast (84th) were among the other cities that made it to the top 100 list globally.
'Cost of living plays a role'
Bina Shah, a Melbourne-based registered education and migration agent says Melbourne stands out as a preference among students coming from India for a lot of reasons.
“Melbourne offers an overall package. Students base their decision on the quality of education and a range of courses available in Melbourne,” Ms Shah told SBS Hindi.
“The large Indian community in Melbourne which also becomes a support network plays a role.
“Students also are very keen on part-time working rights to support themselves and Australia offers these working rights to students,” she says.
Ms Shah says one of the reasons why Indian students chose Melbourne over Sydney is the cost of living.
“The cost of living in Melbourne is lower than in Sydney. It is easy to find accommodation – be it shared or rented. Also, excellent public transport. Melbourne is among the most liveable cities in the world. Melbourne Cricket Ground is a huge attraction and now the fear of Melbourne being an unsafe place is gone. That fear and the trauma which students experienced in 2009 is not there anymore. Melbourne is a safe place and parents feel their child will be studying in a safe environment,” she says.
India's best student city is Bangalore (81st), followed by Mumbai (85th), Delhi at 113 and Chennai at 115 out of a total of 120 cities ranked in the list.
Source: SBS
Europe dominates the list in the latest ranking, with the German cities of Munich (4th) and Berlin (5th), followed by the French capital Paris at the seventh place and Switzerland's Zurich at eighth place.
The Canadian city of Montreal (6th) and South Korean capital Seoul (10th) complete the top 10.
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