The World's Best Cultural Cities for Students, Revealed in New Study

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Jun 25, 2019, 11:30 ET

LONDON, June 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The UK and US are home to the most cultural cities for students, a new study by Oxford Summer Courses examined the cities that are home to some of the world's most prestigious colleges and ranked them according to the number of museums, cinemas, libraries, theaters and street markets per 100,000 people. The UK and US were strongly represented throughout the list, with the American city of Berkeley in California coming out on top.

Second in the ranking was Ithaca, home to the Ivy League Cornell University, which rated highly for its museums and theaters, followed by Cambridge (UK) which ranked highly across all categories, in particular, public libraries and theaters. The UK overall was well represented, with 6 cities – Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, Glasgow, Bristol and Manchester – featuring in the top 20.

The United States and the United Kingdom both ranked highly in the top 20, with 8 and 6 cities featured, respectively
Cambridge (3rd place) beat out old-time rival Oxford (8th place) in the ranking
Outside of the UK, continental European cities also performed well, with Amsterdam, Paris, Lausanne and Zurich also making the top 20

The top 10 cities, according to the research are:

Berkeley, CA, USA
Ithaca, NY, USA
Cambridge, UK
Cambridge, USA
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Edinburgh, UK
Paris, France
Oxford, UK
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Lausanne, Switzerland

Paris's inclusion on the list – in 7th place – is no surprise, with some 300 museums and 132 theaters for students to choose from. Amsterdam and Edinburgh rated in the two spots above it, likely down to their quirky collections of museums and respective bold cultural identities.

The results show that the UK has much to offer students from a cultural perspective. Historic cities such as Oxford and Cambridge not only rank highly in traditional cultural categories, such as theaters, museums and libraries, but also live music venues and street food markets.

Interestingly, despite their reputations as cultural beacons of the world, metropolises London and New York come in at relatively low 25th and 42nd positions, respectively. Although neither are short of cultural places to visit, their large populations mean that each score relatively low on a per capita basis.

Rob Phipps, co-founder of Oxford Summer Courses says of the findings: "The culture offered by a city forms an integral part of the student experience. We're not surprised to see such a strong showing for the UK, with historic cities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, giving their US counterparts a strong run for their money!"

Notes to the editor

Methodology

The cities for inclusion were selected from the top 50 QS Top Universities for 2018. Townships or CDP were omitted. Cities were then rated according to the number of each category per 100,000 people:

Theaters
Museums
Cinemas
Public Libraries
Live Music Venues
Street/Flea Markets

About Oxford Summer Courses

The original creation of two Oxford University graduates, Oxford Summer Courses has been providing an authentic Oxbridge educational experience to pupils aged 9 to 24 years since 2010.

With a focus on exceptional education, cultural and social experiences and the unique traditions of Oxford University, courses run throughout the summer months in the setting of some of the best universities in the world in Oxford, Cambridge and London, as well as India, the USA and South America.

Achieving a Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 listing in 2018, Oxford Summer Courses is the 35th fastest growing firm in the UK's FT1000 index – and the highest-ranking UK education business, as well as the 4th in Europe. The company also established the Universify Education charity to widen access to elite institutions and raise the aspirations of disadvantaged students.

For more information, visit: oxfordsummercourses.com

For further information, please contact Maria Hughes at [email protected] or 020 7242 0142.

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SOURCE Oxford Summer Courses