The proposed cap is central to the government’s plan to slash migration but has faced fierce opposition from the higher education sector which financially relies on international student fees.

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“The cap on international students will hinder our place in the global rankings and therefore it will hinder our reputation and hinder the ability to attract international students,” Calderon said.

Australian universities ranked poorly in areas like employability and teaching, with no local institution in the global 300 for academic and student ratios.

More than 80 per cent of local universities also recorded lower year-on-year scores for employment outcomes and 76 per cent received lower scores from worldwide employers.

The rankings of 1500 universities are based on the analysis of more than 17.5 million academic papers and surveys from 175,798 academics and 105,476 employers.

Australian National University higher education expert Andrew Norton said rankings like QS’s fuelled perverse behaviour among universities.

“[Universities] ridiculously obsess over them and I think it distorts their decision-making. Including the recent merger of two institutions in South Australia,” he said.

“International students make decisions based on research rankings but they are not very indicative of the quality of their student experience.”

Norton said the proposed international student caps would lead to a fall in international rankings, which have a heavy weighting on research capacity.

“We have relied on profits from international students to increase our research output, and as their numbers fall that will start to reverse itself. It may take a couple of years to show because research is a lag indicator,” he said.

“[These rankings] are very important to the international student market, particularly for the Chinese market which is very prestige-focused, to the point where it’s probably the single biggest factor in choosing an institution.”

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.

“It is important to balance regulatory measures with the need to support the international education sector and the opportunities it provides,” she said.

With Robyn Grace

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