Budapest has been ranked 66th in this year’s list of the world’s best university cities. The ranking of the 110 cities investigated covers a range of indicators. The Hungarian capital achieved its best ranking for affordability.
Photo: 123rf
The ranking is compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a London-based company specialising in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world. The ranking considers a range of factors including the quality of the universities, the given city’s liveability, affordability, public safety or the ratio of foreign students.
Only those cities were included to the list
- which have a population of over 250,000,
- and give home to at least two universities featured in the most recent QS World University Rankings.
This explains why only Budapest is included in the ranking from Hungary.
In this year’s QS World University Rankings, 1422 universities were included out of 2462 institutions surveyed. From Hungary there are 11 universities on the list, five of which are partly or entirely in Budapest.
Budapest universities’ positions in the QS Global University Rankings 2023, with their ranking in brackets:
- Eötvös Loránd University (701-750th)
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics (801-1000th)
- Szent István University (Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences) (801-1000th)
- Corvinus University of Budapest (1001-1200th)
- Óbuda University (1201-1400th)
From the various factors examined, Budapest earned its best position (30th) in the indicator of affordability due to its relatively low cost of living by international comparison. The authors of the survey estimate that a student’s monthly cost without rent is around $600 (HUF 240,000), while a one-bedroom apartment in the city costing around $500 (HUF 200,000) in rent.
According to the survey, tuition fees average $3,600 (about HUF 1.4 million) per year, which the list’s authors consider very affordable compared to tuition fees in other cities.
Best university cities, top 10:
- London
- Munich
- Seoul
- Zurich
- Melbourne
- Berlin
- Tokyo
- Paris
- Sydney
- Edinburgh
Source: QS Best Student Cities 2023
Budapest’s current ranking of 66th is the worst result in recent years, with the Hungarian capital ranking 58th last year and 43rd in 2019.
