Dublin

QS Best Student Cities ranking: Joint 37^th

For those whose idea of a perfect student city involves combining top-class study facilities and historic surroundings with a cracking social scene and famously friendly locals… Dublin should be on your list!

Cultural mainstays such as “the craic”, Guinness and St Patrick's Day may have spawned a global Irish cliché industry, but if you visit the real thing you'll understand why there are so many imitations. Ireland's capital has become a more multicultural and cosmopolitan place in the past several decades, but at its heart retains a tradition and culture that is all its own.

Dublin is home to four of Ireland’s eight world-ranking universities, led by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD), ranked joint 108^th and 185^th in the QS World University Rankings® 2020. Between them, these historic institutions have produced famous names in an impressive range of disciplines, but they are perhaps best-known for their literary alumni: Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats and many more.

Dublin’s strongest score in the QS Best Student Cities 2019 is for student mix, in which it ranks 12^th. This reflects the city’s high concentration of students and high ratio of international students (with 23 percent of the student population coming from outside Ireland). The city also ranks in the top 40 for desirability and student view, with lots of praise from students who took our survey for Dublin’s diversity, nightlife and friendliness. One respondent described it as a “dynamic and multicultural city with incredibly friendly people.”

Would Dublin get your vote? Tell us why.

Internationally ranked universities in Dublin

More about Dublin

To find out how each of the above categories is calculated, view the methodology.