Windfall gains from the sale of stock in IDP Education and a one-off $1 billion government grant to prop up research are the two factors that explain the extraordinary surpluses posted by universities across Australia in 2021.

In an analysis of NSW universities, emeritus professor Frank Larkins said increased government assistance and the distribution of dividends and shares from the winding up of Education Australia Limited resulted in universities receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in one-off funding.