The annual edition of the Times Higher Education World University has been released, and according to the new report, Australian universities' rankings have gone higher up, leaving behind United States and United Kingdom's top tertiary level institutions. However, even though currently Australian universities' rankings have improved over previous years, there is one thing ahead in the Southern country that could become a bad step: new fee reforms.

Australia's university rankings have gone up in this year's Times report: the country has 8 of its universities in the list of the 200 best ones in the entire world. The first one in the rankings is the University of Melbourne, which reaches the 33^rd spot worldwide. Other top education institutions in the rankings are the Australian National University and the University of Sydney, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

It's a point of pride that Australia's university rankings have improved over the past few years (even though the University of Melbourne had been higher up in the past, as it reached no. 28 in the 2012 global rankings, says news site The Age), however, a new reform approaches that might change the scenario completely.

This new reform, as explained by United Kingdom news site The Guardian, would deregulate tuition fees of tertiary level education by 2016 - which could potentially harm the Australian university's rankings when they are on the rise.

Phil Baty, Times Higher Education World University Rankings editor, said that Australia's improvement in the rankings were due to a conscious effort towards research, but noted that the situation could indeed change. He told The Guardian: "The big question is whether this admirable strength in depth can be maintained. The reforms may help a small Australian elite protect or even improve their global standing, but what about the rest? It may mean the second-tier institutions are weakened."