Three Australian universities have been named among the world’s top 20, but experts warn a proposal to limit the number of international students is a threat to progress that could take years to repair.
But Angel Calderon, director of strategic insights at RMIT University and member of the QS Global Rankings Advisory Board, saidwas a threat for all Australian universities, which were already seeing a dwindling number of domestic students. QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education analyst, has ranked the world’s universities annually for the past 20 years. The rankings are based on 17 million research papers and surveys of 175,798 academics and 105,476 employers.
While universities in the US and Britain stagnated or declined, almost half of Australia’s institutions improved their rankings. The survey comes as many universities face an existential crisis, brought on by Labor’s plan to slash migration and with it,Australian National University higher education expert Professor Andrew Norton said Australia’s international rankings were likely to fall following any crackdown on foreign students.
QS chief executive Jessica Turner said tighter regulations could prompt several thousands of prospective international students to look beyond Australia, threatening a $48 billion export sector that relied heavily on international student fees to fund research and maintain its cutting-edge status.