University bosses have condemned the double whammy on students from the Turnbull government's planned higher education cuts.
The federal budget included $2.8 billion savings from cutting teaching funding to universities, increasing student fees and lowering the repayment threshold for HELP loans.
Vice-chancellors from the nation's universities met on Tuesday and unanimously opposed the proposals based on their impact on students.
Margaret Gardner of Monash University said the simultaneous increase in fees and erosion of funding for courses was a "double whammy".
"Students and graduates will be carrying higher levels of debt into an increasingly uncertain future," the Universities Australia chairwoman said after the meeting.
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Vice-chancellors were also worried the effects of the government-imposed 2.5 per cent efficiency dividend in 2018 would continue to be felt in perpetuity.
"These are far-reaching changes that would fundamentally alter the nature of the university system," the Universities Australia statement said.
They also questioned what problem a plan to link 7.5 per cent of funding to performance measures was trying to solve.
Labor and the Greens have already indicated their opposition to the the package, leaving the government needing 10 of the 12 Senate crossbenchers to get it through parliament.
