Australia is the most expensive place for an international student to go to university but it is not seen as the best place for a top quality education.

These were the findings of a survey of 5,000 parents from 15 countries which combined average course fees with the cost of living.

At the top of the table, it was estimated an international student in Australia would spend more than $42,000 each year on fees and supporting themselves.

In second place, students paid about $3,000 less each year to study in Singapore and they paid about $6,000 a year less in the United States.

However, only a quarter of the parents surveyed ranked Australia in the top three nations for education.

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The research, conducted by global investment bank HSBC, found 70 per cent of surveyed parents hoped their child would undertake university studies and about 40 per cent wanted their child to study at postgraduate level.

HSBC head of retail banking and wealth management, Graham Heunis, said Australian parents had a lot less desire (41 per cent) to send their children overseas to study, compared to Indonesia where the rate was about 92 per cent.

He said the Australian result could be due to a perception of quality in education.

"What the survey showed is that Australian parents believe that our education system is far better ... number one actually, out of all the education systems, but that's not the case when we talk to parents in other countries," he said.

"The strength of the Australian dollar is not helping the cost of studying in Australia, but it is quite concerning when we ranked relatively low on quality and we are the most expensive, given that education is our largest export service."

Australia ranks fifth in quality of education: survey

International students are a vital part of Australia's higher education sector.

With 20 per cent of university students coming from overseas, Australia has the highest concentration of international students in the world.

Mr Heunis said Australia is not ranking very well on the question of perceived quality.

"If you look at where we rank, and it's quite stark when you talk to Chinese parents, we actually rank as the fifth-highest quality education country for tertiary education, well below the US, UK, Germany. We rank fifth with Canada," he said.

Mr Heunis said Chinese parents, in particular, have a less favourable view of Australian education.

"I think it's a combination of both quality and cost," he said.

"Whilst we still attract a large percentage of Chinese students, I think that's largely driven or strongly driven by our location and proximity to China. But our education system is not rated quite as high as the UK or the US, for example."

International students should get travel concessions: lobby group

Council of International Students of Australia spokesman Dion Lee says every international student already knows it is expensive to study here.

He said making it cheaper would be simple.

"One of the issues that we've been campaigning [for] recently is the introduction of travel concessions to international students as well," he said.

"Not all the states in Australia offer that to international students."

Mr Lee was also concerned that the Federal Government's plan to deregulate university fees for local students would have a negative flow-on effect for international students.

"We also feel that international students are most vulnerable to such measures because, as of now, there isn't an effective policy or legislation to prevent universities from charging international students more than what they are already charging," he said.

The Federal Government and the body representing the university sector, Universities Australia, have previously said fee deregulation was essential so universities could continue to lift standards.