One of the world’s most prestigious ranking agencies, Quacquarelli Symonds, has announced the 2026 ranking of the world’s best student cities. This ranking identifies the world’s best cities for international students to live and study. Baku city is represented in 117th place in the 2026 ranking, which includes 150 cities from 58 countries. In the 2023 edition of the ranking, Baku was ranked 126th, while it was not represented in the 2024 and 2025 editions.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan is the only country from the South Caucasus represented in the “QS Best Student Cities” ranking. Compared to the Central Asia region, Baku ranks second after Kazakhstan’s Almaty city (91st place). Specifically, other cities from the region included in the ranking are Astana (Kazakhstan) in 127th place and Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) in 138th place.

In the evaluation process, several criteria are analyzed, including: the city’s desirability (environment and safety), affordability (tuition fees and general cost of living), the proportion of students in the city’s population, the city’s reputation in terms of tolerance and inclusiveness, employment opportunities, the number of universities from the city represented in the “QS World University Rankings,” as well as feedback from students who have lived and studied in the city.

https://www.topuniversities.com/city-rankings