Better to be a student in Pécs than Paris!

Pécs outranked Paris, Nottingham, Auckland and Milan in the The Campus Advisor ranking, which lists ideal locations for university life. The organization released its survey based on personal experiences and interviews on 23 November.

The ranking criteria included, among others, a friendly atmosphere, living costs, safety, and a vibrant nightlife.

Data were collected from students currently studying at a university in the given city, who rated the city's performance on a five-point scale according to several criteria.

Melbourne, Berlin, and Newcastle took the top three spots in the overall list, and Pécs was the only city, apart from the capital, to make it into the top fifty in Hungary!

Here's how the respondents summarized their experiences of Pécs in the survey:

"There are many parties even during the weekdays, international parties and cultural nights. There are many restaurants which can do delivery as well, delicious food and affordable prices. There are many bars but still, during nights all of them are filled. Pécs is a city filled with traditional stuff and culture such as art, and architecture."

"I really like the city, it's not as big as the capital, but also not as expensive. It's mostly filled with students, so it's culturally diverse and quite welcoming. The rent is cheaper compared to larger cities and the town is not that expensive in particular. The center of Pécs is very lovely and pretty unique!"

Looking at specific aspects rather than aggregating the list of the 50 cities, Pécs ranks as the 6th best in terms of low living costs. What is particularly heartwarming about this top ranking is two things: according to the researchers, University of Pécs (PTE) students are notably friendly, and since there is no other higher education institution in Pécs that accepts international students, all positive feedback refers to the University of Pécs.

"We must take all student feedback seriously. Criticism is very important because it helps us to further develop our unique Pécs-based intercultural learning and research environment. Naturally, we are also extremely pleased with the overwhelmingly positive opinions.

This outstanding ranking will allow us to showcase PTE's sustainable and high-quality internationalization on a global scale."

- Dr. István Tarrósy, director of the International Centre of the University of Pécs, commented on the ranking results.