Universities could face lawsuits in the future from students who believe they have not been given the education they were promised.
All institutions may have to draw up binding contracts with new students setting out what they can expect from their degree courses, such as the amount of lecture time, assessment and feedback, under plans being considered by ministers.
The move would give students more rights and protection, similar to consumers, over the university education they are paying for, it was suggested, including the ability to take action - including legal action - if they feel they feel this has not been provided.
The plans were outlined by Universities Minister Jo Johnson during a speech in which he again took aim at the large salaries paid to universities bosses.
The Russell Group, which represents 24 leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, said they would not want to see standards "undermined by the risk of legal action."
Speaking at the central London event, Mr Johnson said he will be asking the new Office for Students (OfS) to consult on introducing contracts between students and universities.
"These would set out what students can expect from their providers in terms of resource commitments, contact time, assessments, support and other important aspects of their educational experience," he said.
Contracts do exist in some institutions, but these are often light on detail or do not let students know what they can expect from their university, Mr Johnson said.
He said he wanted the OfS to look at how these contracts could be improved and introduced across the higher education system. He indicated that they could become a requirement for universities.
Students who then find that their degree course is significantly different from what they expected would be able to seek redress, which could include measures such as suing their university.
"Clearly it is in the nature of a contract that someone who feels that the benefits promised in the contract are not getting delivered would have some form of redress," Mr Johnson said.
"Clearly through the consultation options that we will be publishing in the course of time, will see what those options will consist of, but legal remedies are certainly not excluded."
Mr Johnson also used his speech to again urge universities to show restraint on leadership pay, insisting it is down to institutions - which are independent bodies - to deal with the issue.
Universities should examine whether leaders' pay is value for money, the minister, said and suggested that one of the areas they could look at is how the institution is performing in the new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) - which measures the quality of teaching at every institution.
He said: "Universities must justify the exceptional circumstances for pay awards that exceed the pay of the Prime Minister - and where there is no justification, they must exercise greater restraint."
Sarah Stevens, head of policy at the Russell Group, said: "We need a system that protects students but also is fair to universities. Higher education courses are challenging by design. They are intended to stretch students and take them out of their comfort zones.
"No one would want to see standards undermined by the risk of legal action. This is only a consultation at this stage but care would have to be taken to ensure that any new requirements on universities do not have unintended consequences."
Dame Julia Goodfellow, President of Universities UK, said: "All universities have contracts with their students. The sector has been responding to the advice of the Competition and Markets Authority to ensure that these are fair and transparent.
"Students also have avenues of redress both through internal university processes and via the independent adjudicator for higher education and, ultimately, through the courts. It is important that promises made to students are kept and Universities UK will continue to work with government and the Office for Students to ensure that this is the case."