Montreal displaces Paris to become world’s friendliest city for international students

Located in Canada’s Quebec province, Montreal has dislodged Paris to become the friendliest city for international students in the world.

The survey conducted by QS Rankings asked 18,000 students to rank cities on their desirability levels. It also took into consideration other factors such as quality of educational institutions, facilities for students, employment opportunities, friendliness, transparency and cost of living before arriving at the result. In all, six attributes were measured, according to CIC news. They were popularity, diversity, employment opportunities, value for money, students’ views and the number of educational institutions in that city.

Overall, Canada got a good ranking as Vancouver and Toronto were rated as the tenth and eleventh friendliest cities, respectively. Ottawa and Quebec also figured in the top 100 student-friendly cities in the world.

CIC News says that this data endorses recent statistics which demonstrate that more people from all over the world are evincing interest to pursue studies Canada, owing to its superior lifestyle, truly world-class education facilities and opportunities to immigrate permanently to Canada.

Montreal, the second most populous city in Canada, is home to close to 250,000 students, which is the highest proportion of graduates, postgraduates and doctoral students for any large Canadian city.  It is home to 11 universities, which include this North American country’s top English-language universities, Concordia University and McGill University. In fact, McGill University is the highest ranked university in Canada as per QS.

Among the major reasons attributed to Montreal’s popularity are its relatively low costs of living, bilingual nature, vibrant arts’ climate and an ambience akin to a European city. The students also appreciated its accommodating nature, various opportunities offered there and a nice mix of North American and European qualities.

Another reason for Montreal’s attractiveness as a destination for education is Quebec’s liberal immigration system. Quebec also has recently come up with a measure to retain international students in Montreal after they graduate as it has already implemented policies to support it. In addition, it is the only province in Canada where international graduates are not needed to be undergraduates to belong to an undergraduate or college study program to get a job offer or work experience in a skilled field to be able to apply for Canadian permanent immigration.

If you are looking to study in Canada, contact Y-Axis, India’s top immigration company, to apply for a student visa from one of its several offices operating from across India.