The Best Student Cities in France in 2025: A Ranking with Several Different Faces

For the past 20 years, L’Étudiant, a French magazine and website focused on higher education, has been publishing a ranking it describes as “independently produced”. The aim isn’t to “point fingers”, they say, but to offer students a “comparative, and most of all informative tool to rank cities by analysing their strengths across a variety of domains”. 

Toulouse, Besançon, and Montpellier as leaders

The general ranking uses 12 criteria grouped into five main categories: educational offerings (universities and specialized schools), quality of life, student experience (leisure), employment and economic vitality, and overall appeal. The “attractiveness” category, in particular, “looks at the appealing power of the urban unit”. How much has a city’s student population grown over the past decade, and does it “successfully draws in international students?” 

Based on these indicators, 47 cities across France welcoming over 8.000 studentes made the list. The Top 10 of the ranking includes:

• Toulouse (120,000 students), which reclaims the leading position, a position it already held between 2021 and 2023. According to L’Étudiant, “Toulouse is making gains across nearly all categories”;
• Besançon (23,000 students) ties for second. Already ranked highly in 2024, the capital of the Franche-Comté region climbed “thanks to improved scores in healthcare and transport”, says the website;
• Also tied for second is Montpellier (80,000 students), down one spot from last year. Still, the capital of the Hérault region “remains top-ranked for public transport, offering completely free access to local residents”.
• Rounding out the Top 10 are Rennes, Caen, Grenoble, Lyon, Nantes, Strasbourg, and Nancy.

It is worth noting that Paris has more than 800,000 students, to rank only between 11th and 20th place. It has added 180,000 students over the past decade, compared to 46,000 for Lyon and 28,000 for Lille. The cities with the largest proportional growth in student numbers are: Caen, Mulhouse, and Vannes, each posting increases of over 40% in ten years.

Students’ Top 3: Angers, Strasbourg, and Toulouse

In addition to the editorial ranking, L’Étudiant also “asked its audience of students and subscribers to vote for their favorite student cities”. This alternative ranking uses very different criteria: like cost of living, housing, and even the city’s “vibe” or atmosphere.

Based on over 15,000 student responses, this “students’ choice” ranking paints a different picture than the overall ranking: According to L’Etudiant, are present in the ranking:

• Angers tops the list, with an impressive 98.61% of student respondents recommending it;
• Strasbourg comes in second, with a 97.57% recommendation rate;
• Toulouse places third, with 97.32%, one of the few cities to be highly recommended in both rankings.

Overall, students seem happy with their experiences across the board: 22 cities scored recommendation rates above 85%. In the top 10, results are particularly close, with cities such as: 

• Tours, with 96,97% positive opinions;
• Caen (96.54%), also praised in both rankings;
• La Rochelle (96.29%);
• Aix-Marseille (95.38%);
• Grenoble (95.35%);
• Lille (95.26%);
• Bordeaux (94.87%).

Students don’t have the same perception as the L’Etudiant editorial team, who has more objective criteria.