A NUMBER of academic staff are to lose their jobs as part of a North-East university's restructuring.

Newcastle University agreed yesterday to merge its seven faculties into three, as part of plans to make it one of the top ten universities in the country.

The university's vice chancellor, Professor Christopher Edwards, said the restructuring would free up 170 academic staff involved in management, so they could concentrate more on teaching and research.

He said the university wanted a more entrepreneurial environment, with the chance to generate a larger income.

It would include boosting the numbers of overseas students, which accounts for £7.5m of its income.

The university will be seeking voluntary redundancies among its 1,721 academic staff, from September. But it will not know how many redundancies are needed until February.

Prof Edwards stressed that the university was not in financial difficulty.

"We're anxious to build on our strengths. We want to move Newcastle up the league over a five-year period and try to move into the top ten, as judged by teaching and research," he said.

The three faculties will comprise arts, humanities and social sciences; medicine and biomedical sciences; and science, agriculture and engineering.

The university aims to have the restructuring completed by August next year.