Paris takes “The best student city” title away from London

The latest ranking shows that London has lost "The best student city" title to Paris, second time in a row.

Latest list of QS Best Student Cities says that London lost the top position by just two points.

Manchester took the 29th spot and Edinburgh took the 32nd spot, both of them making it to the top 50.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said, "It's no wonder London attracts such a high calibre of students from across the globe."

"London has more first-class higher education institutions than any other city," he added.

The students are benefited from London's "abundant green spaces and unrivalled nightlife", its "ever-safer" streets and investment in infrastructure and transport which are ongoing, he said.

London was beaten by Paris for the second time comparatively because studying in Paris was cheaper as said by QS.

Ben Sowter, head of research at QS, said: "Low tuition fees continue to make France a very attractive study destination for domestic and international students. However, it was the performance of Paris's institutions in the QS rankings, the employability of its graduates and high quality of living scores that made the capital city, once again, the world's best student city."

Cities having a population over 250,000 and QS World University rankings must contain a minimum of two universities, only then the city will be considered for the ranking.

Around 98 cities across the world are considered on this criteria.

Five key categories are considered to decide the top 50.

1) The position and the number of institutions in the world university rankings.

2) The number of students living

3) The employers views on the city's graduates' quality

4) How affordable it is, with cost of living which is measured based on the rate of fast food and consumer electronics and tuition fees.

5) The student mix measurement, which takes in account the portion of international students

Mr Sowter said,"London, Manchester and Edinburgh all scored over 90 points for student mix, which highlights the UK's continued popularity as a study destination among international students."

100 points was scored by London as the maximum points for ranking criterion "making it the city with the most highly ranked universities in the world," he said.

At top 20 of 2013's QS World University rankings, were University College London.

Studying in Paris is affordable when compared to London and also, Paris has "the sort of student-dominated core that one would expect to find in a smaller university town," as per QS.

Employers consider Parisian universities' graduates as "priority targets" across Europe.

The top 50 had most cities from the US (seven cities), followed by Australia with six. The UK and Canada had a tie at the third position with 3 cities each.