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Barcelona is one of the 20 best cities for students

The fact that the two most prestigious universities in Spain, the UAB and the UB, are located in Barcelona, has contributed to positioning the city as the 19th best city in the world for university students, according to the QS ranking. The ranking also evaluates factors such as quality of life and the size of the international student community.

03/12/2014

According to the QS Best Student Cities 2015, Barcelona is the 19th top city in the world for those interested in higher education programmes. Another factor the ranking takes into account is the fact that the city is home to two of Spain's most prestigious universities: the UAB and the UB.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd) is dedicated to conducting studies on higher education institutes. Each year, it publishes a prestigious ranking of the best universities in the world. QS has now published its list of the top cities for university students based on the data provided by the QS World University Ranking itself and other information on the cities.

The ranking is led by Paris. Barcelona, which is the first among cities in Spain, is classified as "one of the most appealing environments in which to study" in Europe. QS highlights factors such as the city's "large and international student community" and the cost of living, where Barcelona ranks eighth and stands out as a more reasonably priced city when compared to other similar cities of the ranking.

The UAB moves up in the ranking

In the 2014/2015 edition of the QS world university rankings, published in September, the UAB ranked 173 of the 863 universities analysed worldwide, and was the second best positioned university in Spain. In areas of knowledge, the UAB stood out in position 103 in Social Sciences. It came in position 111 in the area of Natural Sciences, next to the universities of Glasgow and New York; in Humanities it ranked 126, in Engineering and Technology, 233, and in Medicine and Life Sciences, 142. The ranking placed the UAB in position 106 with regard to academic reputation and position 219 in number of citations per researcher, making it leader in this indicator among Spanish universities.

More information: QS Best Student Cities 2015