A Multicriteria Ranking Approach for Evaluating Best Cities for International Students

The dramatic increase in the number of students enrolled in higher education programs outside their country of citizenship during the last half-century has created a huge demand for study abroad-related information circulation. Nonetheless, media nowadays attempts to break information barriers by gathering and processing data from multiple sources, mainly focusing on university academic competency. Although important, academic competency cannot represent international students’ overall quality of life when spending their time in unfamiliar foreign cities. This research is designed to provide solutions to the problem from another perspective Utilizing the Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method to evaluate international study destinations through various dimensions comprehensively. The research integrates various aspects such as economic development, culture inclusiveness, and personal safety into account. It then adopts the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to obtain a detailed index for each destination in the rank. Our work-Global Ranking of Study Destination (GRSD) by cities, is accomplished to contribute to the international student community. With a ranking system that considers vital facets of life in certain cities, prospective international students can make assessments and decisions better for their future.