Massachusetts Institute Technology was named best university in the world for the thirteenth year in a row, while Australia boasted three institutions in the top 20 and nine in the top 100 rankings.
Sky News contributor Chris Uhlmann says the “real issue” of the foreign student debacle is how Australian universities have built themselves around “selling” citizenship.
“China tells us what it would like, and we say yes thank you very much and if we don’t then China gets annoyed,” Mr Uhlmann said.
“The real issue in all of this that the universities have essentially built their business model around selling … permanent residency and citizenship to Australia.”
The top 20 Australian universities climbed an average of three positions with three schools inside the top 20 in the world and nine ranking in the top 100.
The University of Melbourne has achieved its best result as the 13th best university in the world after it increased from the 14th spot last year.
The University of Sydney also rose one place to claim 18th place while the University of New South Wales remained at 19th.
The University of Melbourne was named the best Australian university while the University of Sydney (pictured) and University of New South Wales took out second and third place. Picture: Sydney University
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Melbourne University earned an overall score of 88.9 out of a possible 100 while Sydney University scored 87.3 and University of New South Wales received 87.1.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) remained the best university in the world for the 13th year in a row.
Imperial College London jumped four places to take second while Oxford University and Harvard took out third and fourth place respectively.
In total, 38 Australian universities received a ranking which takes into account academic reputation, employment outcomes and sustainability.
Australian National University (30), Monash University (37), Queensland University (40), Western Australia University (77), Adelaide University (82) and University of Technology Sydney (88) all earned top 100 spots.
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With 197 universities, the United States was the most represented country, followed by the United Kingdom with 90 and China with 71.
The QS firm takes into account nine indicators: academic reputation (30 per cent), employer reputation (15 per cent), teacher-student ratio (10 per cent), citations by Faculty (20 per cent).
Other factors include: ratio of international teaching staff (5 per cent), ratio of international students (5 per cent), International Research Network (5 per cent), employment results (5 per cent) and sustainability (5 per cent).