A COALITION government would overturn Labor's ban on full fees for Australian undergraduates, clearing the way for universities to offer places for a price to students who missed out on publicly subsidised places on academic merit.

Coalition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said fees from Australian students had been a ''vitally important source of revenue'' for universities, denied them ''for purely ideological reasons''.

Bob Hawke accompanies Darren Cheeseman on the hustings in Corrangamite. Credit:Barefoot Media

''It is absurd that … students from overseas are able to access Australian universities, and pay full fees for doing so, but there's no percentage of Australian students that are entitled to do the same thing,'' Mr Pyne told The Age.

''Australian students are being discriminated against in favour of overseas students.