A post-COVID downturn in international and domestic students had led to two years of "significant operational deficits" putting the financial viability of the university in jeopardy.

The number of international students attending Federation fell 49 per cent between 2019 and 2023, causing a drop of $79.1 million in the university's revenue, while domestic student numbers have also fallen.

On Friday, staff were told 200 jobs would be cut across the Federation University campuses at Mount Helen, SMB, Wimmera, Berwick and Gippsland.

The shock announcement, which will result in the loss of 12 per cent of the workforce and comes after several years of cuts to certain sectors of the institution, has left staff distressed and angry.

While initially offered as voluntary redundancies, Federation University acting vice chancellor Liam Sloan said some forced redundancies would be possible if there were not enough voluntary candidates.

"We are looking ... to take out $20 million of costs and if you apply a formula to that on average we are probably looking at about 200 full time roles ... that's the sort of scale of the change that we need to make to get us in to a (better) position," Mr Sloan said.

He said the voluntary redundancy consultation process would be finalised by the end of April.

National Tertiary Education Union Federation University branch president Dr Mathew Abbott said the announcement and the scale of the cuts caught everyone off guard.

"More than one in 10 staff at a pretty small, tight-knit institution like ours ... that's really devastating," Dr Abbott said.

Dr Abbott said the expression of interest for voluntary redundancies closed at the end of this week, giving staff just seven working days to make a decision about their future.

"There's a lot of concern about that very short window. People are really upset at this position which comes in the context of years and years of cuts to arts, to business, to geoscience, to mathematics ... and a lot of budgetary constraint in the last year as well not back-filling positions, leaving positions vacant and not renewing contracts.

"Staff are already under resourced with huge workloads."

Dr Abbott said the decision seemed premature, with the federal budget to be delivered in May and the University Accord promising increased funding for regional universities and universities with low socioeconomic students like Federation.

"They're not waiting to see what's in the pipeline. These cuts in a way seem very premature which has left staff uncertain, angry and upset."

In August 2023 the university announced the closure of its Brisbane campus in 2024 after the impacts of COVID and other factors resulted in low enrolment numbers.

In addition to the job cuts Mr Sloan said other changes would also be made as part of a "major transformation program" known as Future Fed.

"We have to introduce this significant change Future Fed. We see this as a transformational initiative to put the university on a sustainable financial footing that will allow us to invest in the long term growth strategies like better student experience, implementation and delivery of the Federation Co-op model and it will also allow us to focus on the important components of teaching and research," he said.

The Federation Co-op model will embed paid, practical work experience in to every course.

Mr Sloan said the Future Fed program would also look to streamline courses and units, re-engineer systems and processes to remove bureaucracy and red tape, look at more digital-first options and expanded digital learning opportunities, and improve efficiency.