Federation University staff, students and community members will rally next week to protest against an estimated 200 job cuts they say will devastate the institution.
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Students have also stepped up to take part in the rally to be held on May 2, fearing the impact of the job cuts on their courses.
In March, the university announced 200 jobs would be slashed across the Mount Helen, SMB, Wimmera, Berwick and Gippsland campuses in a bid to return the university's books to financial sustainability after falling student numbers left a $20 million hole in the institution's budget.
The rally will call on senior management to stop the proposed cuts - believed to be the largest by percentage of workforce of any Australian university.
At the time, Federation University provost Liam Sloan said the job cuts would come through voluntary redundancies and, if not fully subscribed, forced redundancies.
"Our branch has taken on this rogue management in the past and won and we are aiming to do so again," said National Tertiary Education Union Federation University branch president Dr Mathew Abbott.
"The stakes are very high as staff members believe our university cannot survive cuts of this scale, as they will make our problems with student enrolment and retention far worse."
The job cuts are proposed as part of the Future Fed plan which would 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.
Dr Abbott said university management had not told staff which areas of the university they intended to make the cuts from, creating alarm and distress across the staff not knowing whether their jobs were under threat.
FedUni student Ramesh Durai said students were concerned about the cuts and about proposals to replace staff with chat bots.
"As a current international student, I would be greatly disappointed should the discussed changes, specifically those regarding the redundancy of staff and replacement with automated systems, be meted out," Mr Durai said.
"I would consider it a failing of the university to fulfill their contracted charge of proper tertiary education. If I wanted a chatbot handling my requests I would take that to Maccas, not my university."
