Rallies are being organised in response to new education funding budget measures.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced that in 2017, $160 million will be cut from education funding, followed by a $400 million cut in 2018, and then $870 million more the year after, totalling $2 billion over the next five years.

But the proposal to deregulate university fees has disappeared for now, while the implementation of the cuts has been delayed until after the election. There is speculation that the Government has moved back the harsher measures to avoid the full weight of public dissent.

Unions say they will not be pacified by a longer timetable, arguing that whenever they come, the course cuts, job losses and the defunding of services will have a damaging impact.

The cuts may also push university leaders to demand full deregulation of university fees to make up for lost government funding.

It is a motivation that was described by Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis last year in an article titled; “Why I support the deregulation of education”.

In it, he argued that years of funding cuts have already made completely unregulated fees the only option.

The National Union of Students is organising rallies around the country for May 11, arguing that regardless of who wins the upcoming election, the fight to save uni funding will be needed.