Amsterdam named among best student cities in the world
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By Simone Jacobs
While Amsterdam is known for having expensive student housing, the Dutch capital has been named the 20th-best student city in the world in a QS ranking.
QS Best Student Cities 2026
Every year, QS compiles a list of the best cities around the world to study in to create the Best Student Cities Ranking. To be considered for the ranking, a city needs to have a population over 250.000 and have at least two universities that have featured in QS World University Rankings.
Each of the 150 cities are assessed on six key metrics, each with its own weighting, to calculate an overall score out of 100:
- University rankings
- Student mix
- Desirability
- Employer activity
- Affordability
- Student view
Seoul has been named the best student city in the world in this year’s ranking, nabbing the number one spot from London, which is now in third place. Tokyo ranked second this year, which means that two of the top student cities are now in Asia.
Amsterdam ranked 20th-best student city in the world
The Dutch capital is the only city in the Netherlands to appear in the latest student city ranking, coming in 20th place with a score of 87,4. According to QS, the city’s performance “reflects Amsterdam’s high quality of life, vibrant student community, and good ratings from graduate employers both locally and further afield”.
Amsterdam performed particularly well when it comes to desirability, coming first out of 150 cities for this category. Under this metric, safety, pollution levels and the number of students who want to study in the city are taken into consideration.
Students also praised the city’s lifestyle and inclusivity. “Amsterdam offers incredibly high living standards and is very open towards the LGBT community,” one student told QS, while another commented, “The city is very tolerant and full of art and culture, plus the nightlife is amazing.”
On the opposite side of things, the Dutch city performed the worst in the affordability category, landing near the bottom in 129th place. This is hardly surprising, as Amsterdam is one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in, and with continued spikes in the cost of student housing.
Earlier this year, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) was one of two Dutch universities to make the top 100 in the QS World University Rankings. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam also appeared on the ranking in 194th position.
Best cities in the world for students in 2026
In all, here are the 10 best student cities in the world, according to QS:
- 1. Seoul
- 2. Tokyo
- 3. London
- 4. Munich
- 5. Melbourne
- 6. Sydney
- =7. Berlin
- =7. Paris
- 9. Zurich
- 10. Vienna
For more information and to see the full ranking, visit the QS website.
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Editor for the Netherlands at IamExpat Media. Simone studied Genetics and Zoology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa before moving to the Netherlands, where she has been working as a writer and editor since 2022. One thing she loves more than creating content is consuming it, mainly by reading books by the dozen. Other than being a book dragon, she is also a nature lover and enjoys hiking and animal training. Read more