STUDENTS fear indiscriminate job cuts and the axing of expensive courses will result from the University of Sydney's bid to become a world-leading research institution.

Noah White, president of the Students Representative Council at the University of Sydney, said he was wary the radical rethink taking place was masking big cost cuts.

He said he wanted to avoid a repetition of the scenes at the University of Melbourne where widespread protests have been held against plans to shed 220 full-time academic and administrative jobs. The cuts, which total about $15 million, are among several measures designed to save $30 million a year.

On Monday the University of Sydney's vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, said in the Herald that slashing student intake significantly at the 159-year-old institution was a possibility. Dr Spence wants to make the university a high-end research institution, with all options for its future shape and size to be considered.

There are fears that the 48,000 strong student body, comprising full-time and part-time students, could be cut by more than 10 per cent. Pressure may also be applied to cull some courses focused on professional training and teaching practical skills.

Mr White said cutting student numbers could have some positive effects. "We have an intolerable situation at the moment with the average student-teacher ratio exceeding 40 in some departments. Anything that can be done to improve the quality of our education is welcome," he said.

"What is worrying is that the move may actually be motivated by financial considerations rather than in the interests of ensuring quality and standards.

''What we may actually see is the university cutting loss-making courses in order to save a buck, as has been the trend in the past. We would have some grave concerns for high-resource courses such as languages, some of the sciences and lower demand courses such as gender studies."

Professor Bruce Sutton, the university's academic board chairman, said mapping the future of the university solely on budgetary imperatives would be a ''suboptimal'' solution.

A repositioning of the university was needed, otherwise it risked going backwards as competition increased in the international higher education sector, he said.

''Trying to focus our energies and resources into core activities is one [option] that adds real value. Some [courses] we do might be a stretch in the future - that is, they are at the margin of our core activities.''

Michael Thomson, branch president of the National Tertiary Education Union, said his members would not be concerned by a sensible reduction in student numbers to ease pressure on existing infrastructure and resources.

''We would be deeply unhappy if this was an excuse to cut back on staff,'' he said.

A green paper listing options for the university will be presented to its academic community in early November.

（www.eduwo.com, Anna）