We could change uni reforms: minister

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has left the door open to changing mothballed university deregulation measures.

Senator Birmingham says the government would reintroduce "at some stage" the legislation to allow universities to set their own fees.

"I have been consulting and discussing reforms with various stakeholders and of course the government reserves its right ... to potentially make variations ahead of what comes back," he told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Wednesday.

"But that will be subject to usual budget processes and conditions."

The government has delayed the start date of the overhaul to university funding arrangements, including fee deregulation, until 2017 after it was twice rejected by federal parliament.

Labor claims it will lead to $100,000 degrees.