A UNION is warning of a "brain drain" of academics from North-East universities if staff strike action is rejected.

The Association of University Teachers (AUT) believes that up to 2,000 academics could leave the UK each year if members vote against industrial action.

The union said that accepting their employers' pay proposals could lead to staff losing thousands of pounds in earnings.

AUT North-East official David Bleiman said: "We have had many calls from academic and related staff who, having read the employers' pay offer, are utterly despondent about their future careers in the university sector.

"There is no doubt that if this offer is not rejected many members will vote with their feet by moving to other careers or to a university career abroad."

In an e-mail to all 47,000 AUT members, deputy secretary Malcolm Keight said: "If the current pay modernisation proposals - which would lead to some university lecturers losing £18,000 over the next 13 years -are not rejected, then I fear that many of the leading and most promising academics will decide to go to other countries, where salaries are higher.

"If AUT members do not vote to oppose the employers' proposals, the brain drain that has already begun will turn from a steady flow into a deluge."

The AUT hopes to join the National Union of Students (NUS) in a week of protests, from February 23, with the AUT protesting against pay plans and the NUS against tuition fees.