Within the “30 Best Countries in the World for Higher Education 2024” rankings, launched on November 21st, Ireland achieved an overall score that placed the country as the Sixth Best Country in the World for Higher Education 2024. The Campus Advisor based their findings on data gathered from a pool of 23,500 students across the world. Countries were judged on categories of academic excellence, student satisfaction, affordability, graduate career prospects, diversity, safety, quality of life and social life and culture.
The top five countries for Higher Education were found to be Germany (88.9), United States (88), United Kingdom (87.7), Switzerland (87.6) and Canada (87.4). Ireland followed with an overall score of 87.3.
Performing well in categories such as Graduate Career Prospects (92.8), Student Satisfaction (91.2) and Social Life and Cultural Experiences (90.4), Ireland ranked first in the world for Social Life & Cultural Experiences with Spain and Italy following in second and third place respectively. Ranking third in the world for Graduate Career Prospects, Ireland followed behind the scores of Japan and Germany.
Affordability was by far Ireland’s lowest score (72.6). Affordability scores were generally lower across the board with Germany achieving first place with a score of 83.0.
Ireland also had lower scores in Safety & Quality of Life (87.4) and Student Diversity and Inclusion (87.5). Despite a lower score in Safety & Quality of Life, Ireland still ranked fourth overall in this category, with no country managing to achieve a score higher than Denmark’s 89.4.
The Campus Advisor rankings are unique in that they base their rankings entirely on the experience of students. Other rankings from The Campus Advisor show findings specific to Trinity, where although 91.9% of students were shown to be happy with the choice of clubs and societies here, only 32.3% thought the weekly living expenses were manageable for a student. Overall findings suggest that although an incredibly attractive destination for higher education students, Ireland’s cost of living crisis is a deterrent for students wishing to base themselves here.