International students will pay higher fees for top QS universities

International students in Australia are willing to pay more for universities that stand higher in global rankings.

A group of international students celebrate their graduation

International students in Australia are willing to pay more for universities that stand higher in global rankings, according to a new analysis, underlining the importance that overseas students and their parents attach to an institution’s place in the tables.

Research by international education consultancy Study-move reveals a clear relationship between a higher place in the QS World University Rankings and a higher average level of fees for international students.

It shows that lower ranked Australian universities charge an average of about $25,000 a year to international students for undergraduate degrees, ranging up to about $40,000 a year at top-ranked universities.

Studymove managing director Keri Ramirez said the relationship between ranking and fee levels was also clear if the Times Higher Education World University Rankings were used instead of QS. He said he used QS because it publishes ranking data for a larger group of universities.

Relationship between level of international student fees and university ranking

Mr Ramirez said his firm had been tracking international tuition fees for four years. “We can see that the relationship (between ranking and fee levels) is getting stronger and stronger,” he said.

He noted that previously universities were more likely to set their fees in relation to local factors such as their location, facilities and what other universities charged. Now, Mr Ramirez said, universities look more to their ranking in setting their fees, and international students also increasingly turned to rankings to assess a university’s value.

“Some research shows international students are relying more on rankings to make a decision,” he said.

Mr Ramirez warned there could be risks in universities relying too much on their ranking to set fees, rather than taking into account the totality of their appeal to students.

He said that the clear relationship between rankings and international tuition fees levels seen in Australia did not apply in New Zealand. “They are not in line with rankings at all,” Mr Ramirez said.

Only the relatively highly ranked University of Auckland appeared to consider its ranking as a significant part of its fee setting process.

The strong relationship between international tuition fees and rankings in Australia — and the attraction to international students of the highly-ranked, city-based universities in the Group of Eight — underlined why the push from Scott Morrison to force international students to go to universities in regional areas was likely to fail.

Last week the Prime Minister said: “You’ve got regional universities who would love to have more of those students.

“I think we have got some levers to pull there.

“When we have got more to say about that, we will.”