‘Friendly’ Lancaster’s top ranking in new study is happy news for students
Lancaster is the best by smiles according to a new study into the UK's friendliest university city.
The city ranked higher than Oxford with its top-of-the-class happiness rating of 7.8 in the latest league table published by Innersense Education.
And potential students exploring their options on where to call home for the next few years will be pleased to know that the same study places the city eighth in the top 10 friendliest university locations.
Lancaster’s 1.9 art galleries and history museums per 10,000 people was the fifth highest number of all cities in the study. Immerse Education used a series of metrics such as the number of restaurants, cafes and bars, happiness ratings and safety scores of 43 university cities in the UK to determine the rankings.
St Andrew’s was deemed top overall followed by Bath and Durham.
“Choosing a university is a big decision, possibly one of the most significant in your life,” said Sean Stevens, CEO at Immerse Education. “That's why it's crucial to know where you're headed and what you'll be studying before you commit.”
The results are a further boost for both Lancaster and its highly regarded university, which consistently features as one of the best places to study in the UK, including ranking in the Top 10 in the Complete University Guide 2024.
But the study wasn’t such good news for Coventry. It was ranked as the least friendly city, with the lowest safety index score of all cities in the study and the second lowest quality of green spaces.