Funding council chiefs will next week play down talk of subjects in crisis while leaving the door ajar for limited Government intervention to protect "strategically important" subjects.
Seven months after the Government asked for advice about safeguarding key academic disciplines, the Higher Education Funding Council for England is poised to give a "low key" response.
It is understood that next week Hefce will present statistical evidence showing that some subjects - such as chemistry - may not be as vulnerable as first thought, despite course closures at Exeter and Swansea universities, Queen Mary, University of London, and King's College London in the past year.
Course closures may reflect the ebbs and flows of market forces at work in higher education, Hefce will say.
But the funding council will also tell ministers that intervention to prevent closures is appropriate in some circumstances.
This could pave the way for government action if a subject deemed of national importance - but that attracts relatively few students or in which only a handful of UK academics have expertise - faced extinction.
One source told The Times Higher : "The message is very much 'no need to panic' and that the situation is more complicated than it has been described so far.
"But in principle there may be circumstances in which it might be right to intervene."
The Association of University Teachers said: "You can crunch as many numbers as you like but all you really need to do is to ask those who work in higher education. They will tell you there is a problem.
"With more students than ever before having to study from home there is a genuine access issue if they are denied real choice because of the needless closure of courses."
Roger Woods, chairman of the University Council of Modern Languages, added that student demand was "buoyant" in some of the subjects deemed to be vulnerable by the Government - but they are expensive to teach.
"Maintaining centres of excellence and regional provision is essential for the UK's national interest," Professor Woods said.
"Just think of recent accessions to the European Union: provision in Slavonic and East European languages and area studies must be a priority.
"Charles Clarke (former Education Secretary) gave Hefce the green light to be more interventionist in its approach to funding of particular subjects, and Hefce should take full advantage of this opportunity."
In his letter to Hefce last December, Mr Clarke identified subject areas of particular concern: Arabic, Eastern European languages, science, engineering and maths, Japanese, Mandarin and Far Eastern languages and vocational courses linked to "cultural and creative industries".