However, it is understood since the redundancy process opened on July 30, more than 250 professional and academic staff have put up their hands to leave.

Since voluntary redundancies were sought, the university has remained quiet on  numbers.

The university is understood to have reached its preferred quota of 140 in September, but many more staff had applied for redundancies before the expression of interest period closed at the end of October.

National Tertiary Education Union state president Dr Kelvin Michael said   of those to go, about two thirds were expected to be professional staff and one third academics.

A university spokesman said this was purely speculation and it would notify all staff and brief the union next week.

Dr Michael said he thought many long-term staff would seek a redundancy to take advantage of the payout and there was also some degree of general unhappiness.

Under the university redundancy agreement, professional staff are usually given eight weeks' notice and are paid out two weeks for every year of service.

Academics are given 18 weeks' notice plus three weeks for every year worked. Both were capped at 70 weeks.

Some academics expected to be paid out more than $200,000.

Dr Michael said reducing the number of professional staff would pave the way for the university to establish six hubs around the state.

These would be based at the Cradle Coast Campus, Newnham, Hobart and three at Sandy Bay and would see human resources, IT, finance and other professional-staffed areas grouped.

He said this was part of the university's professional restructuring policy and academic reprofiling.