Stockholm ranked among world's top student cities

Stockholm beat out Helsinki and Copenhagen, as well as several other university towns in northern Europe in a ranking of the “Best Student Cities in the World” published this week.

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The list, compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), is based a set of 12 criteria which take into consideration public information, population size, number of universities and their quality based on the QS World University Rankings.

According to the ranking, the Swedish capital is the 27th best student city in the world.

Nordic neighbour Helsinki came close behind Sweden’s capital at number 33, while Copenhagen was came in 39th.

Topping the list this year was Paris, followed by London, Boston, Melbourne and Vienna.

Glasgow came in last place, just after Bangkok, and Cairo.

The compilation is the first that the company has released and shows a few clear trends, most noticeably the heavy presence of European cities compared to cities in the United States.

While 21 of the top 50 cities were European, only six were based in the United States.

Stockholm's ranking is based on the city having four institutions of higher learning -- Stockholm University, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Karolinska University, and the Stockholm School of Economics (Handelshögskola).

According to the company's rankings, the city’s top university is Stockholm University, which places 178 worldwide.

Two of Stockholm's schools charge fees which average fees are $19,300 a year, according to the ranking.

Boston, by comparison, came in third on the list and has average university fees of $39,600.

In addition, 9 percent of Stockholm's population of 1,373,000 people are students (48,900).

QS’s figures also revealed that 67 percent of domestic employers identified at least one of Stockholm's institutions as producing excellent graduates. The comparable rate for international employers was 53 percent.

While quality of living in the capital was rated as extremely high at 94 out of 100, affordability was the main detractor of the city, rated as 34 out of 100.

More on this story from The Local:
France: Paris best city for students
Studying in France: what you need to know
Switzerland: Zurich ranked world's 7th best place to study