Edinburgh University biomedical staff are among the first to be targeted in a university-wide restructuring.
Biomedical and clinical laboratory sciences will phase out two honours anatomy courses, but anatomy will still be taught. The aim is to cut the equivalent of 23 of 87 academic posts by 2002.
Edinburgh has raised £40 million through a bond issue to aid the restructuring, which it says will lead to millions in savings.
A spokeswoman said the university wanted to lose staff voluntarily, but, she added, "we cannot at this stage absolutely rule out any possibility of (compulsory) redundancies".