A plan to make university students pay more for their degrees may be dead, but it's not buried nor cremated.
That's the view of university staff unions which warn the government's plan to allow higher education institutions to deregulate course fees is still very much on the cards.
Tuesday's budget confirmed the dumping of a policy which failed to clear parliament twice and which Labor has long argued would lead to $100,000 degrees.
The government hasn't given up entirely on the proposal and is floating alternative ideas by releasing an options paper for the sector to consider.
It wants to explore the idea of allowing universities to set fees for a "small cohort" of students studying so-called flagship courses.
For example, that could involve deregulating fees for 20 per cent of courses from universities that want to specialise in a particular area such as law.
"The prospect of $100,000 degrees remains real," National Tertiary Education Union president Jeannie Rea said in a statement.
Higher education reforms which included a 20 per cent funding cut to universities have been delayed until 2018.
The peak universities lobby was happy with the extra time but dismayed by the fresh blow of a $180 million cut to university programs helping disadvantaged students.
"(It's) counterproductive," Universities Australia chief Belinda Robinson said.
In its search for budget savings, the government is floating a number of other reform options.
Among them was lowering the $54,126 threshold at which people have to repay their loans once they're in work, or raising the rate of repayment from the maximum eight per cent.
Students may also have to face paying more for their fees upfront, with the government considering whether to flip the taxpayer contribution more heavily onto students.
Taxpayers now contribute 58 per cent towards study fees while students make up 42 per cent.
The government is floating cutting its contribution to 20 per cent, as well as reducing the taxpayer-backed grant per student.
