Montreal has been named the best city in the world for international students.

The rating in the QS Best Student Cities rankings sees it top Paris and London as the prime place for students to get their educations.

Montreal was given the top spot based on its performance across six categories:

  • university rankings
  • student mix
  • desirability
  • employer activity
  • affordability
  • student view

Student view, a new category added for the 2017 rankings, is based on a survey of students and recent graduates.

Montreal came in sixth overall on the list, with a particularly strong rating for arts and culture, as well as for its friendliness, diversity and affordability. Its multilingual and multicultural mix were also considered major selling points.

Montreal, of course, is also home to high-ranking educational institutions, including McGill University (ranked 30th in the world and first in Canada) and the Université de Montréal (126th in the world and fifth in Canada).

Concordia University president Alan Shepard said the ranking will benefit every school in the city.

"The chaos in the U.S., my home country, and the difficulties with Brexit and elsewhere in Europe, and the security issues, are going to make Canada an incredibly attractive place. But we shouldn't take that for granted," said Shepard.

Concordia has doubled the number of staff working on recruiting students from the United States, and has seen a 50 percent increase in applications in recent months.

Suzanne Fortier, principal of McGill, said the larger community should work to keep these students in Montreal.

"A place where students, while they're here in Montreal can start doing some internships for example in the business world so they can see what the future might look like for them," she said.

Four other Canadian cities made the top 100:

  • Vancouver (10th)
  • Toronto (11th)
  • Ottawa (26th)
  • Quebec City (72nd)

QS Best Student Cities 2017:

  1. Montreal
  2. Paris
  3. London
  4. Seoul
  5. Melbourne
  6. Berlin
  7. Tokyo
  8. Boston
  9. Munich
  10. Vancouver