Higher education funding body, Hefce, is due to outline how spending on teaching, research and capital will be allocated in the next academic year.
Before Christmas, unexpected cuts of £135m were added to “efficiency savings” of £180m for 2010/11.
The government is accusing the higher education sector of “scaremongering”.
Ministers say they are confident the savings can be made in a way “that minimises the impact on teaching and students”.
Professor Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ group, said the cuts would impact on the quality of teaching, as managers prepared to cut teaching budgets for the first time since Labour came to power.
He added that the cuts would increase competition for places.
He added: “Last year about 160,000 students who applied didn’t end up going to university.
“This year, we already know that there are about another 75,000 applying for university.
“So the number of students who go to university will be less than the number that actually want to go and thus there will be a lot of students this year who do not get a place at university.”
Last month, leaders of the top universities said the programme of cuts could cause a “meltdown” in their sector.
‘Shock announcements’
The Russell Group of leading research universities warned that a succession of cuts could lead to universities and courses closing and much higher student ratios, damaging “gold standard” universities beyond repair.
The funding council is giving more detail than it normally would because of the unexpected cuts announced before Christmas.
A Hefce spokesman said it would be giving the detail of high-level decisions it had made on how to allocate funding to universities.The main purpose of this announcement is for the sector to be able to plan,” he said.
“We are issuing something that has a lot more detail this year, because of the current financial situation, because of the extra pressures.”
It will be sent out urgently to vice-chancellors by e-mail to enable them to redraw their budgets.