New data identifying the best places to be a student, based on over 46,000 student reviews from 62 university towns around the UK has been released by accommodationforstudents.com and Newcastle upon Tyne comes out top with an overall rating of 64%

Ten other cities share the second highest score of 62%, including Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Exeter, Dundee and Aberdeen while Brighton and Leamington Spa also scored well. In their reviews, students rated (out of 10) their university location across five criteria: going out (restaurants, pubs, clubs), shops (supermarkets, corner shops, book shops, video shops), transport links (buses, trams, train, underground), community (safety, student population, surroundings) and facilities (gyms, libraries, parks).

Just below, at 60%, were, amongst others, Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester, Leeds, Oxford, Portsmouth, Swansea and Southampton. London and Cambridge scored 58% and 56% respectively, whilst Salford scored the lowest with 48%.

Simon Thompson, co-founder and director of accommodationforstudents.com, said: “These results reflect the recently growing popularity of Newcastle-upon-Tyne as a place to go and study - not just because of its academic qualifications, but because it is a very lively town to be a student.