A new study by Immerse Education reveals the top 10 best places to live as a student in the world based on the number of places to eat and drink, the number of museums, as well as happiness and safety scores.
- Ithaca is the best university city in the world, with the highest number of restaurants, cafes and bars per 10,000 people (96).
- Princeton ranks second, with the highest safety score in ranking (83/100).
- Amsterdam takes third place, the first university city outside of the US, with 33 restaurants, cafes and bars per 10,000 per capita.
With the new academic year just around the corner, many students across the globe will be deciding where they’ll call home for the next chapter in their lives. But which university locations are the best in the world in terms of offering the best quality of life for students?
Immerse Education conducted research to discover the best university locations around the world. Using a seed list of 37 global universities, they analysed a series of metrics to create a final ranking.
You can find the full study here: https://www.immerse.education/university/friendliest-university-cities-around-the-world/
| Rank | City | No. of restaurants/ cafes/ bars/ pubs per 10,000 people | No. of art galleries and history museums per 10,000 people | Quality of life score | Safety index score | Quality of green space |
| 1 | Ithaca | 96.2 (199) | 4.8 (10) | 147.4 | 68.5 | – |
| 2 | Princeton | 44.4 (134) | 1 (3) | 206.2 | 82.6 | 90 |
| 3 | Amsterdam | 33 (3,906) | 1.3 (156) | 196.8 | 71.4 | 83.9 |
| 4 | Edinburgh | 35.2 (1,969) | 1.3 (71) | 184.9 | 68.8 | 81.8 |
| 5 | Stanford | 12.6 (23) | 5.5 (10) | 166.2 | 50 | 51 |
| 6 | Munich | 20.85 (3,303) | 0.34 (54) | 193.3 | 79 | 85.5 |
| 7 | Copenhagen | 16.52 (2,298) | 0.60 (84) | 194.4 | 74.1 | 81.3 |
| 8 | Cambridge | 37.68 (447) | 1.18 (14) | 172 | 68.4 | 94.4 |
| 9 | Madison | 30.82 (849) | 0.98 (27) | 183.9 | 65.1 | 86.2 |
| 10 | Zurich | 12.92 (1,865) | 0.30 (44) | 193 | 77.7 | 69.8 |
*RAW NUMBERS IN BRACKETS
Ithaca is crowned the best university city in the world for students
Ithaca, home to Ithaca College and Cornell University, boasts 96 restaurants, bars, and cafes per 10,000 people (or 199 in actual numbers), creating a vibrant social scene for students. The city also has five history museums and art galleries per 10,000 people, with 10 in total, ranking second overall for this metric.
Princeton, hosting Princeton University, comes in second place. It has the highest safety score in the ranking, 83 out of 100. Princeton also ranks second for quality of green space (90 out of 100), after only Cambridge, Massachusetts which scores 94, reflecting good air quality, cleanliness, and low noise and light pollution.
Amsterdam holds the third spot with 33 restaurants, cafes and bars per 10,000 people, or a whopping 3,906 raw figures. The city also scores well for green spaces, with a rating of 84/100.
Sources and methodology:
To find out which university city is the best in the world, a seedist of 37 university cities worldwide was taken.
To evaluate what constitutes a good university city, several metrics were defined. These metrics focus on factors that contribute to the quality of life for students, including:
- Seedlists;
- Number of restaurants, cafes and bars/pubs
- Number of art galleries, art museums and history museums
- Quality of green spaces
- San Jose used for Stanford due to Stanford being in close proximity
- Quality of life score (global index only)
- San Jose used for Stanford
- LA used for Pasadena
- Detroit used for Ann Arbor
- Chicago used for Evanston
- Boston used for Cambridge
- San Fran used for Berkeley
- Indianapolis used for Champaign
- Raleigh used for Durham
- Syracuse used for Ithaca
- New Haven is n/a due to no cities in the same state being in close proximity
- Safety index score
- Populations for global cities were taken in order to work out the number of restaurants/cafes/pubs/bars and art galleries/museums per 10,000 people.
Once all metrics were ranked, an average score was calculated for each city. This average represented the overall score for the university city. The final ranking was then created by ordering the cities based on these average scores, with higher scores indicating that the location is better for students. Cities with too many missing data points were removed in order to avoid skewing the rankings.
About Immerse Education:
Immerse Education is a leading provider of transformative educational experiences for 13-18-year-olds. They provide summer school programmes across academic and career pathways which ignite student curiosity and enhance student readiness for higher education.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash