One university received almost a billion dollars in international student fees in 2018, while eight received more than 30 per cent of their revenue from international student fees, with major sandstone universities spearheading a race for the lucrative market.

An analysis of university financial statements reveals that three of the elite Group of Eight universities - University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and Monash University - earned more than one in every three dollars from international students last year in a rising trend.

The analysis by The Sun Herald and Sunday Age comes after a week where politicians and sector leaders warned that universities were over-reliant on international fees amid growing tensions between China and the west.

RMIT University was the most reliant on revenue from international student fees and overseas operations in 2018, which accounted for 40 per cent of the university's total revenue.