University leaders have denied that concerns about the financial implications of a major governance shake-up are a "smokescreen" to avoid more transparency.
Legislation making its way through Holyrood will bring about major changes in the sector, including requiring universities to appoint a chair in line with a process set out by ministers.
Universities Scotland, which represents Scotland's 19 higher education institutions, is concerned about the financial impact of additional controls handed to ministers through the Higher Education (Governance) Scotland Bill.
The body fears universities could be reclassified as public-sector bodies by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), restricting their ability to borrow funds and risking their charitable status.
Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Finance Committee, director Alastair Sim questioned the "quality of thinking" that had gone into the Bill and said universities could be "severely hampered" by what he described as the "unintended impacts" of its provisions.
He told MSPs: "I just personally don't feel confident that this Bill has been considered properly in the context of what really are quite heightened risks."
SNP MSP John Mason asked: "Are your concerns about the finances real concerns or are they a smokescreen because the universities do not want democracy and transparency?"
Mr Sim responded: "The problems that we have raised with this committee are very real concerns."
Professor Anton Muscatelli, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow, added: "I can assure you personally I have financial concerns.
"I can recognise that different stakeholders have different positions on this, and that's why the Bill has been published and has been brought forward.
"I suspect on this issue of the finances and ONS reclassification there would actually be quite a lot of agreement across the sector."
If passed, the Bill would also ensure that staff, students and trade unions are represented on university governing bodies.
Garry Coutts, chair of court at the University of the Highlands and Islands, told the committee he believed the legislation was a response to pressure from staff and students for better representation on courts.
He said: "I believe that we can achieve the intentions of government around the representation on courts without the need for legislation which carries a huge amount of risk which could be very detrimental to the sector."
Stephen White, strategic policy lead at the Scottish Government, told MSPs there had been a "thorough consideration of the risk".
He added: "Nothing in this Bill requires higher education institutions to ask ministers for permission for anything. It's not about ministerial control."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here