MONTREAL – The City of Montreal has long been considered a hub for students – both local and international – and there are the numbers to prove it.
Montreal was named the best city in Canada to be a student, coming in an overall eighth on an international list.
“Montreal has been dubbed Canada’s cultural capital, and one of the world’s most liveable cities,” wrote Laura Bridgestock, citing Montreal’s hybrid culture of French and English.
“In the QS Best Student Cities 2015, Montreal proves itself to be one of the world’s best cities for students, moving up from 9th to 8th place, behind Tokyo.”
In the 2015-16 QS World University Rankings, the city’s highest ranking educational institution, McGill University, ranked 24th in the world and 1st in Canada.
That’s a slight drop from its position last year as 21st among 3,539 worldwide institutions; McGill came in at No. 18 in 2012.
Concordia University‘s rating continued to rise, jumping 50 spots from 2014 to No. 411 in the world.
Université de Montréal dropped from 83 last year to 115 this year.
Paris, France topped the Best Student Cities index for the third year running, followed by Melbourne, Australia in second place and London, U.K. coming in third.
But it’s not just the school system that has people talking about Montreal.
“The city boasts a world-renowned indie music scene and is the site of several major international festivals, including the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the world’s largest comedy festival, Just for Laughs,” wrote Bridgestock.
The study looked at things like affordability, employer activity, student mix and desirability.
Montreal’s weakest point? Affordability.
“But in fact, it beats most of the other top 10 student cities on this indicator,” stated Bridgestock.
Other Canadian cities that made the top 50 student-friendly cities include Toronto (9) and Vancouver (12).
To check out the complete list, click here.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
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