At least he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne kept a smile on his face on Monday during a grilling from Sky News host David Speers which one of Pyne's political opponents likened to a comic sketch from the ABC's Clarke and Dawe.

Speers, who won a Walkley Award last year for his tenacious interview with Attorney General George Brandis about the definition of metadata, spoke to the Mr Pyne on Monday about the government's latest backdown over its higher education reforms.

Mr Pyne had said on Sunday that continued funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) was "inextricably linked" to the passage of the government's bill to deregulate the funding of universities, a position he abandoned on Monday, pledging to continue to fund the organisation even if fee deregulation did not occur.

"Politics is a fast moving business," Mr Pyne said with a smile at the beginning of the interview. "What I've said consistently... is that the deregulation of universities is the central core of this reform, and that everything else is up for negotiation."

Mr Pyne said he had found the $150 million needed to fund the NCRIS another way. When Mr Speers pushed him how he had done that, Mr Pyne first kept repeating that he'd "fixed it."

"I've fixed it. I'm a fixer... I've fixed it by funding it in another way which you'll find out in the budget," he said.

"Why can't you tell us?" asked Mr Speers, to which Mr Pyne replied: "I want it to be a surprise for you."

The rapid-fire exchange continued Mr Speers asked again where the money had been found.

"That's really not your concern," said Mr Pyne.

"Well it's taxpayers' money minister," responded Mr Speers.

"Well it will be clear in the budget," said Mr Pyne.

Labor's Tony Burke posted a segment of the interview on Facebook, likening the exchange to a Clarke and Dawe script, comedians made famous for their satirical political interviews.

The government's decision to split the higher education bill to secure university deregulation is nevertheless expected to fail, as there is still insufficient support among crossbench senators for the changes.