The university announced in December it was considering cutting 34 jobs in an attempt to save £1.5m from its salary bill.

It had hoped enough lecturers would volunteer for redundancy but only 14 people have come forward, which means about 20 teaching staff could be made redundant.

Peter Fletcher, the president of the AUT teachers union at Keele, said they will go on strike if they are forced into it.

'Boycott examinations'

He told BBC Radio Stoke: "If the university's ruling council decide to proceed with compulsory redundancies, then we will hold a ballot.

"We will probably start with a one-day strike and we'd have boycotts and other activities such as weekend working and open days.

"This could possibly lead to a boycott of examinations although we would not go into that immediately."

Lecturers fear that the job cuts could lead to a lowering of standards.