Source: Article by Edana Robitaille (Published Jul 17, 2024)
Montreal, Canada ranks among top ten best cities for international students
Montreal, Canada has ranked as one of the best cities in the world for international studenrts accrodingly to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Students Cities of 2025,
Qubec’s largest city placed 101th in the ranking of 150 cities. It had an overall score of 92.1 out of 100.
The top ten cities were:
- London
- Tokyo
- Seoul
- Munich
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Paris
- Zurich
- Berlin
- Montreal
Toronoto, Canada’s largest and most populated city, came in the 11th place and Vancouver ranked 19th.
The QS Top University study considered six key categories when ranking global universities. For example, each city required a population of more than 250,000 people and at least two universities featured in the recent QS World University Rankings.
Montreal is home to McGill Univeristy and Concordia University, both based in the downtown core.
Student Mix
Apart from the results of the QS University ranking, the survey assigned scores under five other categories. For example, the “Student Mix” category considered the proportion of students in the city’s population and how many of them are international studnets. It also factored in the inclusivity of the city and country where the universities are located.
According to the Tourisme Montréal , the city hosts 40,000 internaitonal students from 150 countires each year.
Desirability
The second category was desirability. This highlights factors such as safety, pollution levels and how many respondents wanted to study in the city.
Employer Actvity
This factor uses the data to find the cities that are the most popular in recruting and hiring new graduates. Toronto again took the highest score of all Canadian cities followed by Vancouver and Montreal respectively.
Affordability
Montreal scored highest in affordability as compared to Toronot and Vancouver. The paramenters such as apartment rentals, boarding and lodging expenses are taken into consideration.
Student View
This category is based on how students rate their city for several factors including tolerance, diversity, transit, friendliness, nightlife, culture and sustainability.
It also factors in how likely studnets are to stay in their city for at least one year after grduation. QS says this reflects students’ perspective on the availability of employment and their overall experience in a city. Montreal had the highest score followed by Toronto.