The Cost of an Australian university degree compared to the rest of the world

By Paul Kniest. Some of the more questions frequently asked about the impacts of Christopher Pyne’s proposed changes to higher education include what impact they are likely to have on the cost of getting an Australian university degree and how this will compare to the rest of the world.
While we do not know exactly how much the cost of university degree in Australia will increases as rest of the government allowing universities and other providers offering Commonwealth supported places to charge whatever price they think the market will bear.  The NTEU’s analysis of factors determining likely prices rises and what impact this will have on students is the subject of a fact sheet called  How much will a uni degree cost?
The purpose of this note however, is compare how much it costs to undertake an undergraduate university degree in Australia compared to the rest of the world.  In order to ensure that we are comparing universities of similar standing we have used data on university fees included in QS World University Ranking Top 500 for 2013. More...