Dublin has been voted the best city in the world for tolerance and inclusion in the Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) Best Student Cities 2018 survey. Dublin also ranked 34th overall, with over 50,000 students and recent graduates taking part in the survey.
The respondents rated cities based on eight categories, including affordability, friendliness, arts and culture, nightlife and quality of transport. The students and graduates surveyed also answered on whether they would like to stay, or had stayed, in their city following graduation, and whether there was sufficient employment opportunities.
Montreal was voted the top student city in the world, and ranked 10th for staying after graduation and first for student experience. Munich and Melbourne were ranked second and third respectively, followed by Prague, Vienna and Stockholm. New York was voted the best city in the world for staying following graduation, while Edinburgh ranked 12th overall and fourth for student experience. Budapest was voted to have the best student view.
Dublin ranked in the top 50 for student view and desirability, at 33rd and 36th respectively. Notably, the city was ranked 129th globally for affordability, with recent Trinity, Dublin City University (DCU) and National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) students protesting against price hikes of student accomodation.
The student view indicator centered on students’ experiences of the city, and whether they stayed in the city following graduation for at least a year, which QS states reflects a students’ perception of a city, as well as availability or quality of graduate prospects.
The desirability category is based on the overall appeal of each destination, taking into consideration the safety of the city, its pollution, corruption based on data provided by a number of companies such as The Economists Safety Index, and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
This year saw Trinity rise 10 places in the QS university rankings to 88th, with an overall score of 74.30 out of a possible 100 points. The QS World Rankings are based on six factors: academic reputation, employer reputation, student-to-faculty ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio. Academic and employer reputation are both based on global surveys sent out to academics.