Moscow

QS Best Student Cities ranking: 28^th

The capital of the world’s largest country, Moscow is a city of superlatives – most populous city in Europe, home to the most billionaires, site of Europe’s tallest building... Student life in Moscow is certainly unlikely to be dull.

The 2018 edition of the QS Best Student Cities ranking sees Moscow climb 11 places to rank in the top 30, with the city offering a staggering selection of sights and experiences, from edgy modern art galleries and bohemian cafes, to the historic palaces and cathedrals within the Kremlin complex.

While it has a reputation for being an expensive place to live, Moscow may not come with quite as high a price-tag as you expect – and in fact, it appears in the top 50 of the Best Student Cities for affordability. High outlays on accommodation are offset by international tuition fees which fall in the mid-range (around US$5,500 per year), and relatively low daily retail costs. A Big Mac in Moscow, for instance, costs the equivalent of US$2.29, while the same order in Paris would deplete your funds by US$5.14.

Moscow also achieves a high score for employer activity, reflecting the fact that domestic and international employers hold its institutions’ graduates in high esteem. The city is home to an impressive seven universities included in the QS World University Rankings 2018, including Russia’s highest-ranking institution, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The city also appears in the top 50 for student view, with plenty of positive comments from respondents to our student survey. One student commented: “Many activities and events happen during the year, the city is made for youth and student life”, while another said “You get to learn about different people and cultures.”

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Internationally ranked universities in Moscow

More about Moscow

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