Education Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday the Government wanted to ensure students had access to ''vital campus services, including child care, health care, counselling and sporting facilities''.

''[But] we are not considering a return to compulsory student union fees,'' she said.

However, Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith accused Ms Gillard of ''playing with words''. ''What Labor are now trying to do is find a way to placate student union leaders who can only survive by forcing students to pay a massive fee to join their organisation,'' he said.

Ms Gillard is reportedly considering an ''opt-out'' system to replace voluntary student unionism so students can choose where the money from their fees is spent.

Australian National University Students' Association president Jamila Rizvi was worried the services students would want to pay for were not necessarily the most important ones.

''Students are going to want to spend the money on their sport clubs and getting boozy in O-week, which all the same are very important, but you don't come to uni expecting that you are going to need pregnancy counselling, you don't come expecting that you are going to need free legal advice, so you are not going to direct your money towards those, but when things go wrong they are the services that are the most important,'' she said.

Associations across the country were anxiously awaiting the Government's announcement, because ''the longer this keeps going without the necessary support the more services we are going to lose''.

University of Canberra Students' Association acting president Kurt Steel predicated the new scheme would be HECS-style.

''To put the extra burden on students and make them pay up front fees will probably get a bit of a back lash from students, especially considering that most of the students at the University of Canberra at the moment were never around before VSU was implemented, so to be smacked with this up front fee might be a bit full on,'' he said.

Mr Smith backed the 2005 legislation that scrapped compulsory fees for students, saying the ''silent majority'' should not be forced to fund services they do not want to use.

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, who crossed the floor to oppose the change in 2005, said he would consider voting with Labor again to reintroduce the fees.