College and sixth-form students nationwide will have their hearts set on their university of choice, but is their preferred place to live and study among the best in the UK?
As results day approaches, the experts at Immerse Education analysed 43 popular university locations, considering the number of social spots, art galleries and museums, as well as overall happiness and safety.
These are the UK’s best university locations for students to live
| Rank | Location | No. of restaurants/ cafes/ bars/ pubs per 10,000 people | No. of art galleries and history museums per 10,000 people | Happiness rating | Safety index score | Quality of green space |
| 1 | St Andrews | 67.9 (115) | 2.4 (4) | 7.2 | 83 | – |
| 2 | Bath | 48 (455) | 3.8 (36) | 7.2 | 74.5 | 75 |
| 3 | Durham | 50.4 (241) | 0.8 (4) | 7.4 | 78.8 | 95.8 |
| 4 | Brighton | 65.8 (915) | 2.6 (36) | 7 | 60.8 | 85.7 |
| 5 | York | 47.9 (736) | 2.2 (34) | 7.5 | 72.4 | 75 |
| 6 | Edinburgh | 42.3 (1,969) | 1.5 (71) | 7.3 | 68.8 | 81.8 |
| 7 | Oxford | 28.9 (496) | 0.8 (13) | 7.7 | 66.0 | 88.2 |
| 8 | Lancaster | 30.1 (142) | 1.9 (9) | 7.8 | 56.2 | – |
| 9 | Canterbury | 43 (238) | 1.5 (8) | 7.4 | 68.3 | 70.5 |
| 10 | Aberystwyth | 54.6 (80) | 0.7 (1) | 7.3 | 66 | – |
St Andrews offers the best quality of life for students in the UK with the highest number of restaurants, bars and cafes per capita:
St Andrews, home to the historic St Andrews University, has the most restaurants, cafes, and bars among university towns in the UK, with 68 per 10,000 people, or 115 in actual numbers. It also boasts a high safety index of 83/100, the highest in the overall ranking.
Bath, home to the University of Bath and Bath Spa, ranks second, offering the most art galleries and history museums per capita at 4 per 10,000 people (36 in total), making it a great place for history buffs to live and study. It also has a safety index score of 75 out of 100, the fifth highest in the UK.
Home to the prestigious Durham University, Durham comes in third, ranking the highest for quality of green spaces with a score of 96/100. Durham also has a safety index of 79/100, the second highest in the UK.
Brighton, home to the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex, is fourth in this ranking. York, where you’ll find the University of York and York St John University, comes in fifth.
The capital, London, ranks in 26th place overall, partly due to its low safety score of 46/100.
Coventry is revealed to be the worst city for students with the lowest safety scores in the country.
The study also examines the university cities with the lowest quality of life for students, with Coventry ranking first. It has only 15.4 restaurants, cafes, and bars per 10,000 people (552 in total), a safety index of 35 out of 100, the lowest in the country, and a low quality of green space score of 50 out of 100.
Birmingham and Loughborough follow as the second and third worst cities for students. Birmingham has the second lowest safety score of 35 (after Coventry which scores 36) whilst Loughborough has the third lowest happiness score at 6.97 out of 10, after Lincoln (6.57) and Manchester (6.85).
