UNIVERSITY staff say they are facing job cuts because bosses are spending too much on building projects.

Lecturers at Northumbria University took strike action yesterday and about 300 people staged a rally in Newcastle city centre in protest at 58 proposed job cuts.

Bosses at the university want to cull staff in three of its departments - arts and social sciences, health, community and education studies and informatics.

Last night, lecturers' union Natfhe accused them of trying to balance the books after paying millions to take over the former Warner Village cinema site in Newcastle.

Roger Kline, national head of Natfhe's universities department, said: "It is all very well having nice buildings, but the core of a university is teaching."

All departments have been ordered to keep staffing costs below 45 per cent of their annual budget.

A £60m scheme to take over the Warner Village site, and expand the Northumbria University campus for 3,000 extra students, was unveiled in March.

Professor Kel Fidler, the universities vice-chancellor, said: "There is no question of any subject area being closed and every effort is being made to avoid compulsory redundancies."

He defended the policy of cutting the number of lecturers, saying staffing at the university was 13 per cent higher than the national average.

He said surplus staffing in the three departments was costing it £5.8m.