University leaders will be briefed on Wednesday by an official from electronic intelligence agency the Australian Signals Directorate on the need to strengthen cyber-security amid a series of high-profile breaches affecting the sector.

Rachel Noble, head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre which falls under ASD, will attend a meeting of vice-chancellors in Wollongong, detailing "the cyber threat and what they can do about it".

"The higher education sector has been and will continue to be targeted by those trying to steal research and personal data," Ms Noble told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

She said ASD was working with "all sectors of the economy to improve their cyber defences and resilience".

The Australian National University revealed earlier this year that it had been the subject of a devastating cyber-attack that accessed data spanning 19 years and 200,000 current and former students and staff.

Authorities labelled the attack "sophisticated", indicating the involvement of a foreign government. Officials view China as a key suspect and fear the information will be used to compromise people who have attended or worked at the university.

The incident followed another breach of the ANU's systems, said to have been carried out by Chinese-based hackers and and compromising sensitive research.

The Australian Catholic University has also been targeted and last year the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation said 26 Australian univerities had been affected by an alleged Iranian-backed hacking campaign.

"Universities are high value targets for malicious cyber attackers because of the valuable intellectual property and personal information they hold," Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned.

Mr Tehan said higher education and research institutions have a "responsibility to their students and staff to have the strongest defences in place to protect the information they hold".

The meeting of vice-chancellors will also discuss the 13 Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes at Australian universities.

Mr Tehan put the insitutes on the agenda for the meeting after The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed new details about the contracts governing the partnerships between host universities and the Beijing-based headquarters.

In intelligence and security agencies, China is viewed as the major force behind state-sponsored hacking against Australia and other countries.

On top of hacking of government entities, large-scale theft of valuable intellectual property and commercial secrets held by universities and companies is a particular point of concern.

Many universities also conduct research in partnership with governments and militaries, giving them access to sensitive information.

Last year, Australia joined the US and Britain in attributing to Chinese intelligence services a "breathtaking" global campaign affecting major technology firms. China denied it was behind the attack.