Montreal again named among the world’s top 10 student cities
Montreal’s reputation as one of the world’s premiere destinations for international students has been confirmed in the recently released QS Best Student Cities Rankings 2022.
In the ninth annual listing, Montreal remained the top Canadian metropolitan area and tied for ninth best in the world, along with Paris and Boston. London, Munich and Seoul were named the top three.
The rankings compare 115 urban centres, based on a range of indicators from six categories: University Rankings, Student Mix, Desirability, Employer Activity, Affordability and Student View.
Montreal’s best placements are in Student View, tied for ninth, and Student Mix, 10th. The Student View score weighs the experiences of students and recent graduates from around the world, and Student Mix considers the city’s proportion of international students.
With three local universities included among the QS World University Rankings 2022 — Concordia, McGill University and Université de Montréal — the city placed 26th worldwide in the University Rankings category.
Ready for the return to normal
Matthew Stiegemeyer, Concordia’s director of student recruitment, confirms that being in Montreal certainly helps the university’s international recruitment efforts. “We can talk about the rich social life for students, which is reflected in the QS rankings,” he says.
“Montreal has a strong reputation in Canada, and Canada’s international perception really rose in recent years. We’ve seen a steady rise in the number of international students as the Canadian opportunity shines, and students’ awareness of Concordia and its reputation has risen in parallel with that.”
As countries prepare to gradually reopen their borders after COVID-19 restrictions lift, cities’ standings will continue to have an influence on attracting students. Yet Concordia’s international enrolment also climbed in recent years.
“We’ve seen over the course of the pandemic that the interest has remained high for both Concordia and Montreal,” Stiegemeyer notes.
“When you have an established reputation, that interest carries forward even when mobility is reduced. We’ve seen that with our fall 2021 cohort — our international numbers are higher than in previous years, so the interest remains strong,” he says.
“In part, that’s tied to being in one of the major urban centres in Canada — there’s a strong prospect for employment here,” Stiegemeyer adds.
“Certainly, Concordia’s quality experiential education is part of it. We also know there’s an interest in our traditional science, technology, engineering and science fields, STEM, but also in the arts and the humanities.”
To see the full listing, visit QS Best Student Cities Rankings 2022.
