Johannesburg has trumped the Mother City in a ranking of the world's best cities for university students.

Compiled by international consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the annual Best Student Cities Ranking compares 120 cities around the globe according to a number of factors assessing how student-friendly they are.

Such factors include university rankings, how desirable and affordable the city is, what quality of life it offers, and how diverse its student population is.

Employer activity, defined as an "indication of which cities are most highly sought-after as recruiting grounds among graduate employers", is also taken into account.

TOP AND BOTTOM

London was declared the number one city for students this year, with Tokyo and Melbourne rounding out the top three.

On the other end of the scale were Kiev and Leicester, which tied for the 118th spot, and Minsk, which came in last at number 120.

The two South African cities included in the ranking both came in the bottom half of the list; Johannesburg 78th, and Cape Town 80th.

So what gave Jozi the edge over the Mother City? It's more budget-friendly - in fact it was ranked one of the 10 most-affordable student cities in the world.

It also got a much higher score for employer activity. Joburg scored 21/100 in this category, while Cape Town got a dismal single point. (To compare, London scored 93 points.)

The top 10 cities for students, according to the 2019 Best Student Cities Index: