The suspended Minister for Employment and Learning has accused Northern Ireland's two universities of trying "to unpick the Executive's draft budget".
Queen's University and the University of Ulster are campaigning against budget proposals related to investment in the universities' research and development programmes. They claim the North has the lowest expenditure per head of population in the UK.
However Ms Carmel Hanna of the SDLP, a member of the now-suspended Executive, said the universities were creating "a dangerous precedent for interference in the hard won budget which the Executive spent days and weeks putting together".
The budget has been released in draft form and is due for further consideration by the British government next month.
A spokesman for Queen's University told The Irish Times yesterday that it made no sense for Ms Hanna to criticise the universities for expressing their views when the draft budget is up for consultation.
Ms Hanna says she and party colleague Dr Sean Farren, the suspended Minister of Finance, "clearly recognised the important role which research in our universities plays", adding that their actions while in government are testament to this. She outlined a range of supports made available for university research and development programmes totalling millions of pounds.
However, the vice-chancellor of Queen's, Sir George Bain, warned that failure to provide more research support would cripple the North's universities.
"It is shocking to realise that we spend less on research per head of population than any other UK region. In Scotland the figure is £35.55. In Northern Ireland it is a derisory £15.81." He said the British Treasury recognised the importance of research, allocating £1.25 billion to science and innovation. But he claimed that the North's share of this had been diverted. "It will have a significant impact on the ability of Northern Ireland's business to compete - not only with other UK regions but internationally," he claimed.
The key to improving public services is the development of a strong economy capable of sustaining investment, he added. "That will not happen if the areas which drive economic regeneration are starved of resources."