Like several other industries, education has undergone radical shifts in just a couple of years. The growth in technology has transformed the knowledge taught to students in schools and colleges. For instance, the near ubiquity of computing devices these days, whether it's a computer or a smartphone, has led Silicon Valley firms to push for greater coding education in schooling systems. This push is being led by the nonprofit Code.org, which led a nationwide effort to include computer science education in U.S. school districts. Its efforts include pushing for legislation that removes computer science's classification as a foreign language and reclassifies it as science to ensure that only teachers that are qualified as 'foreign language instructors' do not teach the subject in schools.
Multiple research papers and reports show that computer science education has beneficial outcomes. For instance, researchers from Stanford University investigated the impact of computer science courses in high school on problem solving. They created black box problems that hid portions of circuit systems and asked those being tested to figure out the hidden patterns. The results showed that out of the 74 undergraduate students sampled, those with a computer science background were the highest scorers. Crucially, the research also showed that junior and senior students of computer science were the only ones where the level of exposure to computer science education improved their problem solving scores as this difference was not present in students from other disciplines.
Another research report, this time from West Coast Analytics has a larger sample size and it investigates the effects of computer science on college enrollment. Partnering up with Code.org, the research took a look at data from 89 American high schools and close to sixty thousand students to run their analysis. After accounting for school differences and their effects on college enrollment, the results show that taking an advanced placement (AP) course in computer science in high school boosted the chances of college enrollment by 17%. Additionally, an AP Computer Science A score further boosted this percentage to a whopping 38%.
So, while it's clear that the earlier you teach kids computer science, the farther they might go in life, another fact is that computer science itself is also transforming education. The outbreak of the coronavirus forced universities and schools to close down, but since classes cannot be suspended indefinitely, they shifted education online. These changes appear to have been permanent as now, some of the world's biggest and best universities offer a wide variety of courses on different platforms. This has also led to a growth in digital education providers. Research from the consultancy firm McKinsey shows that 2020 was a record setting year for enrollment in online education courses. Behind this change are several factors such as more large universities offering the courses, a greater amount of investment from venture capital firms, a record growth in full time enrollment, and a growth in standards for online education. In terms of figures, the number of learners in Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) jumped by hundreds of millions, since while it had stood at a mere three hundred thousand in 2011, by the end of 2021, the number of learners had grown to sit at a whopping 220 million with the coronavirus pandemic accelerating this growth by 92%.
The global higher education market is quite lucrative as well. Research from Market Data Forecast shows that the higher education market was worth $77.4 billion in 2020 and will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% until 2026 to sit at an estimated $115 billion by the end of the forecast period. Naturally, the research firm also adds that the market is being shaped by technology and the growth in online education as a larger number of universities are adapting different tools to cater to these trends. Additionally, as is the case with several other markets as well, Asia Pacific is the largest segment of the higher education market and will have the fastest growth rate as well.
This adoption rate of universities was also mentioned by the management of 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWOU) in a recent earnings call where they cited several examples and shared:
When we started the company, universities didn’t have the capability of building online courses or launching online courses. And so that was 100% necessary to get a program online. And while we were very proud of our team that builds really high-quality content and it’s meaningful over time, more and more universities have developed capacity to do that. That’s part of the reason for the flexible model. We do think you’ll see a good number of the core bundle with clinical placement or the core bundle with marketing and clinical placement and other €“ often not the course build €“ from the standpoint of the financials that is a net positive because it does lower the CapEx. And we are focused on getting to positive EPS.
With these details in mind, let's take a look at the world's best cities in education.
To compile our list of the world's best cities by the education system, we used Best Student Cities 2023 list from Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company specializing in the analysis of higher education institutes, and ranked the cities by the ranking score for quality of their universities assigned by Quacquarelli Symonds.
Cities with the Best Education System in the World
30. Dublin, Ireland
University Ranking Score: 55.8
Dublin is the capital of Ireland and also the largest city in terms of population. It is home to Ireland's oldest university, the University of Dublin.
29. Perth, Australia
University Ranking Score: 55.9
Perth is a Western Australian city and houses more than two million people. It has top universities such as Curtin University and the University of Western Australia.
28. Brisbane, Australia
University Ranking Score: 55.9
Brisbane is the largest city in Australia's Queensland state.
27. Munich, Germany
University Ranking Score: 56.7
Munich is a financial hub in Germany and has produced Nobel laureates for more than a century.
26. Baltimore, USA
University Ranking Score: 58.5
Baltimore is the largest city in Maryland and home to the illustrious Johns Hopkins University.
25. Montreal, Canada
University Ranking Score: 58.7
Montreal has one of the biggest economies in Canada and its McGill University leads the globe in education.
24. Lausanne, Switzerland
University Ranking Score: 59.9
Lausanne is a Swiss city known for its large research campus of different universities.
23. Santiago, Chile
University Ranking Score: 61.8
Santiago is the capital of Chile and houses the largest and oldest university in the country.
22. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
University Ranking Score: 62.3
Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia and houses its best university, the University of Malaya.
21. Philadelphia, United States
University Ranking Score: 63
Philadelphia is Pennsylvania's largest and houses some of the best research universities in America.
20. Zurich, Switzerland
University Ranking Score: 64
Zurich is one of Switzerland's most prosperous cities.
19. Edinburgh, Scotland
University Ranking Score: 64.2
Edinburgh is Scotland's capital and has some of the oldest universities in the world.
18. Taipei, Taiwan
University Ranking Score: 64.5
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, a disputed region.
17. Singapore, Singapore
University Ranking Score: 65.2
Singapore is a city and a country with tens of thousands of international students.
16. Sydney, Australia
University Ranking Score: 65.3
Sydney is a major Australian city that has Australia's oldest university, the University of Sydney.
15. San Francisco, USA
University Ranking Score: 67.1
San Francisco is one of the most prosperous cities in America and has several century old universities.
14. Buenos Aires, Argentina
University Ranking Score: 68.8
Buenos Aires is Argentina's capital and its University of Buenos Aires has produced several Nobel prize winners.
13. Melbourne, Australia
University Ranking Score: 68.9
Melbourne is a large Australian city and has several top high schools and universities.
12. Los Angeles, USA
University Ranking Score: 69.4
Los Angeles is a large American city with a variety of public universities.
11. Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe
University Ranking Score: 70.4
Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe, or Keihanshin, is one of Japan's largest urban areas.
10. Chicago, USA
University Ranking Score: 70.5
Chicago houses the University of Chicago and Northwestern Universities among other top universities.
9. Shanghai, China
University Ranking Score: 73.6
Shanghai is a large Chinese city and consistently produces top research papers.
8. Paris, France
University Ranking Score: 73.6
Paris is the capital city of France and is known for top universities such as INSEAD and HEC.
7. Hong Kong SAR
University Ranking Score: 74
Hong Kong is a Chinese autonomous region and a city.
6. Boston, USA
University Ranking Score: 77.3
Boston is one of the most advanced cities in Massachusetts and the Greater Boston Area has education heavyweights like Harvard and MIT.
