Kuala Lumpur - second most affordable city
KUALA Lumpur has been ranked as the world’s second most affordable student city.
Ranked the most affordable student city last year, the title has now been taken by Budapest.
Malaysia’s capital city is also ranked 37th in the top 100 cities for tertiary students to live in, rising four places from 2017.
The city was among those ranked in the annual QS Best Student Cities 2018 released on Wednesday
Tokyo, at second spot, ranked highest among Asian cities.
In the global list, London tops the rest followed by Tokyo and Melbourne.
QS Quacquarelli Symonds research director Ben Sowter said Kuala Lumpur offers as strong a proposition to students as it ever has done, reaching its highest-ever position.
“Underlying this record-breaking success is the improving performance of its universities in our flagship QS World University Rankings – Universiti Malaya reached a record high of 114th in the most recent edition.
“Students coming to KL know that they’re living somewhere that won’t break the bank, and somewhere that has received positive feedback from students in the city,” he said in an interview.
On Kuala Lumpur no longer being the world’s most affordable, Sowter said this is due to relatively minor cost fluctuations, and in a world where higher education is becoming increasingly expensive, Kuala Lumpur’s low costs will ensure that it still proves an attractive prospect to aspiring students.
“This will be even truer if it can continue to combine affordability with academic excellence,” he added.
The ranking of the cities, compiled by QS Quacquarelli Symonds which produces the annual QS World University Rankings, is based on performance in six indicators, namely rankings, student mix, desirability, employer activity, affordability and student view.
He said QS considered 489 cities for inclusion, and have featured the top 100 in the published ranking.
“The results account for 50,000 responses to QS’s student survey – over double the number included in the 2017 edition,” he added.