Students are still on their way to a lifetime of debt and paying more for their university courses, the federal opposition warns.
Labor says the government is using the smoke-screen of talks with higher education institutions to delay plans to allow universities to charge their own course fees past an election.
The consultation process served a "convenient political purpose" and the government can only hope to get through the election without saying anything but maintain deregulation and funding cuts, the opposition says.
"Australian students still face the prospect of $100,000 degrees and a lifetime of debt," opposition higher education spokesman Kim Carr will tell a university conference in Canberra on Thursday.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham is consulting with industry and stakeholders and has left the door open to tweaking changes to university funding plans.
He's already delayed the start date of the overhaul, which includes fee deregulation, until 2017 after it was twice rejected by federal parliament.
Universities are demanding an end to the policy paralysis and want to know what the government has in store for them.
