‘Bengaluru India’s best student city, Chennai ranked 115th globally’

The 2019 global rankings of 120 top student cities released in London on Wednesday include four Indian cities: Bengaluru (81st), Mumbai (85th), Delhi (113th) and Chennai (115th).

Bengaluru is home to several institutions, including the Indian Institute of Science, that has increasingly figured in global rankings in recent years. The ranking is also informed by feedback from more than 87,000 current and prospective international students.

Ben Sowter, research director at QS, said: “Our ranking looks at cities that are attractive to students and in particular, to the international ones. As India’s main priority is to meet its domestic, rapid growth access to higher education, some of our criteria penalize the Indian megalopolis featured”. “Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see Bengaluru’s debut at the top of the national list and to see Mumbai growing in popularity among students. Both Delhi and Chennai perform very well on the affordability criterion, an aspect that it is essential to sustain the internal demand for university education”.

The ranking includes 14 cities each from the US and UK, led by London (1st) and Boston (12th) respectively. Asia’s top city remains Tokyo (2nd) followed by Seoul (10th) and Hong Kong (14th); China’s top are Beijing (32nd) and Shanghai (33rd):

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The fact that London has again been ranked the best city in the world in which to be a student is fantastic news – and is no surprise given that London is home to world-leading higher education institutions and a vibrant cultural life”.