Hong Kong retains 17th spot among top cities for students but high costs hurt

Hong Kong has retained its 17th place among the world’s top destinations for students, but British rankings firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has said that high living costs along with the steepest tuition fees in East Asia continue to deter international applicants. QS also identified limited international diversity and a persistent shortage of accommodation for students as key challenges for the city. In the QS Best Student Cities list for 2027, which provides an overview of the best places to live and study around the world for international students, Hong Kong retained its 17th place while ranking sixth for university strength. Seoul topped the list for a second consecutive year, followed by Tokyo and London, while Singapore ranked 11th. “Affordability remains Hong Kong’s weakest category at 86th out of 150, down one place from last year. International tuition across its ranked institutions averages around US$18,900 a year, the highest of any East Asian city in the ranking and more than double the figure for Tokyo,” QS said. QS said that accommodation pressures were also acute. “In 2024-25 there were around 44,000 hostel places for around 192,000 full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students, while full-time non-local students across the wider post-secondary system had reached around 79,300,” it said. QS noted that while the government had introduced the Hostels in the City Scheme to ease the conversion of hotels and commercial buildings into student accommodation and had earmarked additional sites, delivery, affordability and location would determine whether supply could meet demand. “Without it, growth in recruitment pushes students into an already expensive private rental market,” it said. The QS ranking assesses cities across six categories: university quality, city desirability, employer activity, affordability, student mix and the views of students themselves. Hong Kong also saw its largest decline in the desirability category, falling seven places to 36th. This metric considers factors such as safety, corruption, healthcare, pollution, climate, commute times and global connectivity. Amsterdam ranked first in this category, followed by Vienna and Copenhagen, while Tokyo was the top-performing Asian city at fourth. QS said that another weakness lay in Hong Kong’s student mix, with the city ranked 49th globally and down two places. “Hong Kong is highly non-local but not yet globally diverse: 77 per cent of non-local students in publicly funded programmes came from mainland China in 2023-24, 19 per cent from elsewhere in Asia and 4 per cent from the rest of the world,” QS noted. Melbourne and Sydney ranked first and second in this category, while Singapore and Seoul were the top two in Southeast Asia and East Asia, leaving Hong Kong in fourth place. QS praised Hong Kong for rising to the sixth spot in university strength. The city has five universities listed in the top 100 in the World University Rankings. A city ranked in this league table must have a population above 250,000 and at least two universities in the QS rankings. Of the 150 cities that meet these criteria, 61 are in Europe, 52 in Asia-Pacific, 18 in North America, 12 in the Middle East and Africa and seven in Latin America. QS said that Seoul’s second year at the top was not an isolated result. “It caps a run of QS findings this year that point the same way: South Korea has built one of the world’s most employability-focused and outward-looking higher education systems, and its cities are reaping the reward,” it said. Singapore saw the biggest gain in the metric of employer activity, which provides an indication of which cities are most sought after as recruiting grounds among graduate employers. “This is the sharpest movement anywhere in its profile and the clearest ranking evidence of a system built around employer proximity,” it said. The company also carries out a survey of international students each year to gauge their views on the city in which they study. In this category, Singapore ranked 13th globally and Hong Kong took the 35th spot. The former came first for Asia, while Hong Kong ranked fourth. The city state received excellent feedback directly from students via the survey, scoring 93.8 out of 100, while Hong Kong scored 83.1, QS said.

Hong Kong retains 17th spot among top cities for students but high costs hurt

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Quacquarelli Symonds also identifies limited global diversity and persistent shortage of student accommodation as key challenges for city

Quacquarelli Symonds also identifies limited global diversity and persistent shortage of student accommodation as key challenges for city