A better deal for regional universities and no changes to student loan interest rates could bring the federal government closer to deregulating the sector.
Having passed the lower house earlier this month, the higher education changes are now the subject of talks with crossbench senators.
The government needs six extra votes to pass the bill, with Labor and the Greens opposing it outright.
Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer, who effectively controls four votes, has written to Education Minister Christopher Pyne stating his party's opposition and calling for the return of free education.
But one negotiator told AAP the PUP had a track record of doing last-minute deals on legislation and that government figures were talking to the party.
"Palmer (party senators) could always change their mind," the source said.
Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm, who supports the changes but doesn't believe they go far enough to deregulate the sector, said PUP's statements opposing the bill should not be read as conclusive.
"They don't follow logic," he said, pointing to the deal to repeal the mining tax.
A spokesman for independent senator Nick Xenophon said two key issues were the change of indexation of student loan interest rates and the disproportionate impact on regional students.
Mr Pyne is understood to already be looking at these two issues, which have also been raised by Family First senator Bob Day, university chiefs and coalition backbenchers.
A spokesman for Senator Day said market forces should be allowed to operate across the higher education sector.
But universities needed to be more transparent in telling students how much each course costs and the likely job prospects for graduates.
The bill won't come before the Senate until late October, when a committee reports on its inquiry into it.
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