S&P states they will be “a boost” for universities and the broader economy but in the short-term could reduce revenues, as Chinese students who cannot get to Australia for first semester defer in the light of their government’s new requirement they must study on campus.

New arrivals are “unlikely to shift the dial on our credit ratings.”

The agency rates five Australian universities, ANU, La Trobe U, Uni Melbourne, UNSW and Uni Wollongong and assesses them all “stable.”