President Carter's voluntary wage and price guidelines, outlined last week, may limit Harvard to a $400 tuition increase for the 1979-80 school year. But officials around the University yesterday expressed uncertainty about exactly what effects the federal program might have on Harvard.

According to officials with the federal Council on Wage and Price Controls, the University's non-profit status would not exempt it from Carter's plan.

Howard S. Lapin, an economist working with the council, said yesterday that although the guidelines are voluntary measures, the federal government expects colleges and universities to abide by the restrictions.

In addition, because Harvard holds numerous government contracts, the University might be subject to additional pressure from the government to comply with the program.

"With such a university (as Harvard) that has so many government contracts, I think the president can do a fair amount of arging," Lapin said yesterday.

However, Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, said yesterday. "I don't think it's going to be a question of pressure." He said he thinks it is "clearly intended" that universities and colleges comply with the program, adding, "I would certainly think we will comply."

The uncertainty about the guidelines' effects on Harvard centers around exactly how much they would restrict the University's budget. Robert E. Kaufmann '62, associate dean of the Faculty for finances, said yesterday the guidelines add "a new dimension to our budgetary planning, but they do not put us into a state of utter panic and siege."

Under Carter's proposals, Harvard's tuition figure, taken by itself, would be limited to an 8 1/4 per cent increase in 1979-80--equal to .5 per cent less than the average increase over the last two years. In 1977, tuition rose 8 1/2 per cent, from $4100 to $4450. Last year it rose 9 per cent, from $4450 to $4850.

That would limit tuition, this year at $4850, to a $5250 maximum. But Kaufmann said that when room, board and other service charges are added to the basic tuition figure, the resulting limit should change.

Because of many uncertainties--such as how the College's exemption from the Massachusetts meal tax will be considered in calculating Harvard's two-year average fee increase--the exact numerical limit on Harvard's total charges remain unclear, Kaufmann said.

In addition, Carter's package proposes a 7 per cent ceiling on salaries. Kaufman said that if this figure is applied as a ceiling on each individual's maximum salary increase, the limit would be "somewhat lower than we were thinking."

However, he added that the ceiling might be applied as an overall limit on a pool of salaries; and Kaufmann said this could have different consequences for the University.

"There are also other variables such as energy costs," he said, adding the oil-producing nations were not likely to pay much attention to Carter's guidelines. "If they increase prices tremendously, will we be allowed to pass on the costs?" he said.

Because the participants in Harvard's budgetary process have not yet formulated salary guidelines or tuition and fee proposals, Kaufmann said there were still too many variables to assess exactly how Carter's guidelines would restrict the University.

"But 8 1/4 [per cent limit on tuition] and 7 per cent [limit on salaries] does not impose an enormous hardship," working from what now appear to be the possible effects of the wage and price restrictions, Kaufmann said