Public not persuaded on uni reforms: VC

A leading university says the government has botched the job of selling higher education reforms.

University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Warren Bebbington, a strident advocate of deregulation, says the public is yet to be persuaded of its benefits.

"This clearly hasn't gone well," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"The fact that none of this was foreshadowed before they were elected has been a big problem for members of the Senate and for the public too."

Professor Bebbington said Group of Eight institutions such as the University of Adelaide suffered the most because they were responsible for the bulk of research.

He hoped to meet with Education Minister Christopher Pyne and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in coming days.

"The problem remains that universities are greatly underfunded," he said.

"Both parties say this is going to be an election issue so we'll need to work with both sides of politics, I think, to get a long term solution."