Two Australian cities rank among the most attractive places to study globally

The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) Top Universities study, published recently, ranks four Australian cities among the top 20 cities in the world for study. In fact, Melbourne is ranked as the second best city to study in the world, trailing Paris by just six points. Melbourne ranked first in the ‘student mix’ segment. It received high scores in ‘desirability’ and ‘employer activity’ segments too.

Meanwhile, Sydney, Australia’s largest city, was ranked as the fourth best place to study in the world. It also scored high in segments of ‘desirability,’ ‘student mix’ and ‘employer activity.’

The capital of the country down under, Canberra, and Brisbane were ranked as the 17th and 18th best places to study the world over, respectively. Surprising omissions were the popular US cities of New York and San Francisco and the UK cities of Edinburgh and Manchester.

The QS Top Universities study ranks cities for study based on five major criteria like affordability, employer activity, university ranking, student mix and desirability. For each city’s desirability to be calculated, taken into consideration are factors, such as cost affordability numbers, law and order situation, social development, choices, corruption, pollution levels, culture and history. One major consideration in this study is the employer activities. Under this segment, factors taken into consideration include what the employers’ perception is about the best institutions of each city along with the employment numbers of youth.

This news will serve as a boost to Australian cities, which are striving to attract the crème de la crème of students from across the world. Indians are well aware of the study environment Australia offers, including quality of life, educational opportunities and low crime rate, among others. Moreover, it is thinly populated, unlike the US, providing students with more opportunities to settle down there after completing their education.