LECTURERS at a North-East university yesterday confirmed that they will take strike action over compulsory redundancies.

Staff at Sunderland University will stage a one-day strike on Tuesday.

They voted this week to work to rule in protest at the proposed job losses.

The dispute arose after 46 jobs at the university came under threat this summer, as part of financial cutbacks.

Most will go through voluntary redundancies, or staff taking up posts elsewhere, but there are still nine jobs under threat.

Jeff Fowler, of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe), said: "These job losses are happening as a result of bad planning by management but it is valued lecturers who are losing their jobs, not the people who made the mistakes.

"Lecturers have worked against the odds to keep standards high and deliver good results for students, but university management seems to regard cost-cutting as more important than the quality of educational provision, and are determined to push these compulsory redundancies through."

He claimed that viable courses would be under threat as a result of the redundancies, reducing student choice.

The union believes that any necessary savings should be made by natural wastage of staff over the next few months.

Its members will stage a rally outside the Edinburgh Building, Chester Road, Sunderland, at noon on the day of the strike.

The university said it was still looking at making the cuts through more voluntary redundancies and urged Natfhe to consider the impact a strike would have on students.