George Bain, vice-chancellor of Queen's University Belfast, said this week that support for the university's restructuring plans, which could mean redundancies for 100 academics, had been reaffirmed by senate.
Students at Queen's school of psychology have voiced concern that the proposed revamp of academic posts will adversely affect teaching. In a petition, 520 students said guidelines for the restructuring were unfair and had targeted vital teaching staff.
But Mr Bain said: "I have never said we have total support from the student community, but the student representatives and leadership are totally behind the policy. We will not allow the quality of teaching to be adversely affected."