Consultant Studymove has crunched the fees Australian universities are charging international students for 4677 programmes this year. Average undergraduate fees across the system grew from $26 200 in 2015 to $29 235.

The all-university average for UG and PG courses is up 4.9 per cent on 2017, a bigger increase than the 2016-17 4.2 per cent increase.  The fee-spread is; zero to 3 per cent, ten universities, 3 per cent – 6 per cent, 12 universities, 7 per cent – 9 per cent, seven universities and 10 per cent – 17 per cent, nine universities.

Disciplines with the lowest increases are in natural and physical sciences, at 2.8 per cent. There are above average increases in education (6.6 per cent), management and commerce (6.8 per cent) and health (9.3 per cent).

Studymove points to the increases outstripping CPI but, then so do university wage costs.