Leighton Andrews will respond to the Browne recommendations Welsh education minister Leighton Andrews is to respond to the findings of a review of higher education in England being published on Tuesday.
It is expected the cross-party Browne review will recommend the cap on university tuition fees is scrapped.
This would allow institutions to charge more than double the £3,290 a year they currently receive.
The assembly government says it is keeping an eye on developments and will consider the implications for Wales.
Other expected recommendations in Lord Browne’s report include higher interest rates for the repayment of student loans.
Though devolution gives Welsh ministers the opportunity to diverge from English policy on universities, some educationalists fear the consequences of doing so in this case.
They have warned that if English universities were able to charge tuition fees of £7,000 a year and their counterparts here were not, an existing funding gap between English and Welsh universities could get even larger.
‘A disaster for Wales’
Last year the Welsh affairs select committee estimated that the gap already costs Welsh universities £61m a year.
Andrew Parry from Glynwdwr University in Wrexham told BBC Wales that a two-tier system where Welsh universities fall behind English ones is a distinct possibility.
National Union of Students Wales president Katie Dalton said: “The cap being raised is a disaster for Wales in that institutions in England will be able to charge more and Welsh insitutions would be underfunded.”
The proposals for England are being outlined by a panel of experts, chaired by former BP chief Lord Browne.
An initial response from Education Minister Leighton Andrews on how Wales reacts to the proposed changes in England is expected on Tuesday afternoon.
It may be some time before there is full clarity on these issues, as the way the Browne recommendations will be taken forward by the UK coalition government is ot yet clear.
‘Dishonest’
The Liberal Democrats campaigned at the general election against fee rises and all the party’s MPs have signed a pledge to oppose them.
Ministers have been trying to reach a compromise that will be progressive enough to secure their backing.
Ceredigion Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has said it would be “dishonest” if he voted with the coalition government to scrap the upper limit on university tuition fees in England.
Mr Williams said it was “huge principle” and he would vote against it.
Mr Williams told BBC Wales: “I think it would be dishonest for me personally to do anything other than that and an abstention is not a vote against those increases.
“I’ve fought four elections in the Ceredigion constituency with two excellent universities – in Lampeter and Aberystwyth – and I’ve made commitments over those four elections and specifically at the last general election and on that basis I’m sticking by that pledge.”
The UK government is also considering asking all but the poorest graduates in England to pay a “market” rate of interest on their student loans.
Currently all graduates pay a low interest rate, linked to the base rate, on their tuition fee and maintenance loans.
The earnings level at which they start repaying loans may also be raised.
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