The 2019 Financial Report for Higher Education providers, released Wednesday morning, details the financial state of universities between January and December 2019.

The ACT's two main universities fared worse than the national average in government funding changes, together receiving $900 million over the course of the year, marking a decrease of 1 per cent on 2018 figures.

The Australian National University received more than $700 million of the total, while the University of Canberra had nearly $200 million.

They were able to make up for the funding decrease in alternative revenue, generating a total of $1.8 billion - an increase of $175.6 million or 10.7 per cent. Nearly $400 million of that revenue came directly from international student fees.

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Overall, ACT universities reported a $75.7 million, or 30.8 per cent, increase on net operating figures to reach $321.5 million for the year.

On a national level, the country's nearly 40 universities generated a total revenue of more than $36.5 billion, the report shows, representing an 8.2 per cent increase on the previous year's total.

The federal government provided an extra $200 million, or 0.9 per cent, to 2018's funding amount reaching the $17.8 billion mark.

Inflation rates fluctuated between 1.3 and 1.8 per cent in 2019, meaning the national funding increase fell below the rate of inflation.

The report also highlighted the universities owned $90.4 billion in assets, rising by $7.6 billion.

It was staffing costs that remained the highest expense for universities, totalling $19.2 billion across both academic and non-academic staff.

Non-academic staffing costs grew by $500 million to $9.1 billion over the year while academic staff costs reached a little more than $10 billion in total.

Overall, it showed universities had a strong year with revenue increasing and expenditure remaining just below.

The findings will ultimately paint a notable contrasting picture once 2020's report is released next year. A global pandemic has wiped out key revenue sources for Australia's universities and the horizon remains relatively bleak.

With an international travel ban still in place and news of staffing and course cuts persisting in light of the pandemic, it's likely these figures will mark the high point before years of low.