Universities Australia chairwoman Sandra Harding will reveal the study findings in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday arguing $2.8 billion in federal government funding cuts will place further stress on students and the sector.

Less than a week before Treasurer Wayne Swan outlines a tough budget, Professor Harding says changes to Start-Up Scholarships ''will put even more pressure on new students to increase their income from outside sources''.

She cites a Universities Australia survey which is soon to be released of 11,761 students, showing 80 per cent of full-time undergraduates have to find a job and they work on average 16 hours a week.

''A majority reported that their job adversely affects their performance at university,'' Professor Harding's speech notes say.

''A third of Australian undergraduate students said that they regularly miss classes because of employment obligations, and about 17 per cent said they regularly went without food or other necessities because they were unable to afford them.''

National Union of Students president Jade Tyrrell said the conversion of the Start-Up Scholarships to loans would hurt disadvantaged students and put undergraduates under even more pressure.

''Even 16 hours of work is actually quite difficult for some students who are working very hard, especially full-time students,'' Ms Tyrrell said. ''We're at the brink of it becoming quite unmanageable for students.''

The government last month announced savings to help fund the Gonski school reforms, including an efficiency dividend on university funding, the scrapping of the 10 per cent discount for up-front HECS-HELP payments, and a $2000 cap on tax claims for self-education expenses.

In her speech, Professor Harding will portray the coming years as ''a tale of two futures'': one in which Australia adequately funds higher education and gains a smarter economy or ''where we slip further down the rungs of public spending on tertiary education when ranked against comparable developed nations''.

''You don't have smarter people if Australia's public investment in tertiary education as a percentage of GDP is less than 24 of the world's 29 advanced economies,'' she will say.

Professor Harding warns the cuts will have a flow-on effect and estimates the combined effect on universities and students at $1 billion a year in 2017. ''I fear the choice between the short-term gain of a full-time job after leaving school or the long-term reward for both themselves and the country of several years at university attaining further qualifications has been tilted towards the short-term gain.''

Government figures obtained by Fairfax Media last week showed federal funding per student was projected to decline over the next four years in today's dollars.