Under the new arrangements up to 100 academic staff members will be lost through "voluntary separation".

Speaking to The Daily Advertiser on Thursday, acting vice-chancellor Professor John Germov said the number of academics lost from each campus would "depend on which staff put in an expression of interest" by October 16.

But, Professor Germov said he also expects the larger campuses to see proportionately high job losses.

"Our biggest campuses are Bathurst and Wagga, so we would expect that ... the numbers from each campus would be broadly representative of the working populations on those campuses," Professor Germov said.

While the initial rounds of job losses will be voluntary, Professor Germov said the university "may have to" consider forced job losses if 100 positions could not be found for voluntary removal.

"I'm pretty confident that we probably will get 100 or close to the 100 expressions of interest based on our experience with professional staff earlier in the year," Professor Germov said.

"If we don't get the numbers we will consider potentially forced redundancies but I'm pretty confident based on the reactions, already we're getting staff expressing interest, that we will make that number."

In early August, the university announced it would cull 48 courses and change delivery of 61 other courses.

This week, Professor Germov further explained that the academic staff who have been most encouraged to seek voluntary separation packages are those within the 40 faculties most affected by the course cuts.

Dr Helen Masterman-Smith, representative of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), expressed concern that the job cuts would remove "one in eight academics".

She said staff now fear they will be forced to do more work with fewer resources in a situation Dr Masterman-Smith described as "frankly terrifying".

"The anger is huge about this because staff know we have been short-staffed for years. So for those who want to go or who are close to retirement, it's probably a great deal, or an opportunity for them," Dr Masterman-Smith said.

"But for the 700 academics that remain, a lot of them think it's going to be hell on earth. From where I'm standing and from what I'm hearing I think there's an absolute train wreck coming."

With higher than average student intakes expected in 2021, Dr Masterman-Smith said the increase to academic workloads will jeopardise "staff being able to work at their best".