New Delhi: Mumbai and New Delhi are the only Indian cities to make it to the top 100 best cities for students in the world, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities Ranking 2017.

The international ranking agency QS, compilers of the QS World University Rankings, on Wedesday unveiled a list of 100 best cities. The report analyzes cities according to performance in six composite indicators: affordability, desirability, student mix, rankings, employer activity and student view.

Mumbai has clinched the 85th position, while New Delhi is in 86th position in the ranking topped by Montreal, Paris, London, Seoul, Melbourne, Berlin, Tokyo, Boston, Munich and Vancouver in the first 10 positions.

“India will certainly reach greater and greater heights thanks to its dynamic, young and competitive people but becoming a top study destination for international students doesn’t seem a priority now (except for a few elite institutes/universities that have a strong international outlook) because it is way too busy creating the infrastructure to meet its growing internal demand for higher education," said Simona Bizzozero, head of public relations for QS.

“Montreal doesn’t face the same rather extreme social and economic inequalities that can be found in Mumbai or any other Indian megalopolis. From an international student perspective, all the cities listed have the possibility to host and educate a large number of students, while India has a shortage of university places for its own fast growing university population," Bizzozero added.

Last year, Mumbai and New Delhi were ranked 77 and 89, respectively. Mumbai has fallen substantially. In the previous edition of the ranking, Mumbai was the world’s second-most affordable student city.

Indian cities perform best in the affordability metric, which measures the cost-of-living in each city. New Delhi is ranked 15 in affordability, while Mumbai is in the 30th position. Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya, Riyadh, Warsaw and Mexico City top the list of most affordable cities in the world, according to the ranking.

In terms of graduate employer activity, Mumbai is ranked 40, while New Delhi ranked 50.

Both the cities have registered an increase in their desirability score, with Mumbai in the 90th position followed by New Delhi in 91. The desirability score measures a number of indicators pertaining to quality of life, including pollution, corruption, and safety.

“Our entire higher education ecosystem is not represented well in the global ranking, which has a bearing on our best student cities rankings too," said Rohin Kapoor, director, Deloitte. “In Indian higher education institutes, the representation of foreign students and faculty too, are not substantial. We need to work on that. The factors of pollution, safety and corruption, are factors, which improved upon in the near future can help us in improving our rankings further."

The ranking, since the inaugural ranking of 2012, places Montreal in the top spot for the first time. Paris, which topped the list for all the past rankings, has slipped to the second spot this year. The ranking, till last year, ranked top 75 cities only, against 100 this year.

QS has ranked Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe among the top five cities in Asia; while Boston is the best city to study in the United States (US); Canadian cities too have performed well in the wake of recent political events in the US.

QS analyzed 125 cities for this year’s ranking.

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