Govt confident of uni reforms: crossbench

Crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm says the Abbott government is confident it now has the numbers to pass its higher education reforms.

The government is determined to get the reforms through the fractured Senate before parliament breaks for the year on Thursday.

Senator Leyonhjelm says over the past week Education Minister Christopher Pyne has been "strenuously lobbying" both him and the crossbench.

"Christopher Pyne tells me he's pretty confident he's got the numbers," he told Sky News.

"He seems to be fairly sure that he'll get something up. Whether it will be something exactly that he started with ..."

The government wants to deregulate university fees, extend commonwealth support to private providers and degrees below bachelor level, cut the per student funding level and increase interest rates on student debts.

Family First Senator Bob Day says he's concerned with the proposed interest rate change on student debts.

"I'd like to move an amendment to knock that one out," he told Sky News.

"Other crossbenchers have got some ideas that they'd like knocked out and if we support each other's amendments, and chip away at it, perhaps it will get into a form that the crossbench will accept."