Lecturers and staff at the University of Dundee are being balloted for strike action in a row over job losses.
The university plans to get rid of 70 posts, on top of 55 that it axed last year.
The University and College Union (UCU) attacked the move, coming as it does just months after staff were praised for the quality of research.
The union said that strike action would be a last resort, but that staff felt that they had no alternative. Staff are also being asked if they are willing to take action short of a strike, which could consist of things like only working contracted hours.
Ian Ellis, Dundee UCU branch representative, said: "For staff to be told on one hand they're a credit to the university and on the other that they're at risk of being made redundant is insulting.
"Strike action is always a last resort, but we have exhausted all other avenues and have been left with no other option. Dundee is a great university but it will only continue to be so if the staff who undertake the research and teach the students are there to do the jobs in the first place."
The ballot closes at 12pm on Monday 13 April 2015.
A university spokesman said: "The University has set an ambitious transformation agenda through which it aspires to be Scotland's leading university, transforming lives locally and globally through the creation, sharing and application of knowledge, and by delivering excellence in teaching and research.
"In order to deliver this we need to achieve financial security. Like many across the higher education sector, the University faces a difficult financial situation at the present time.
"Only last week we received notice that our research funding from the Scottish Funding Council was being reduced by over £1million, despite some excellent results for Dundee in the 2014 Research Excellent Framework.
"In addition, our costs in relation to our income are currently higher than other comparable institutions across the sector. The university therefore set a deficit budget of £2.7 million for the year 2014-15, which represents around 1 per cent of turnover.
"We aim to reduce this deficit by addressing both income generation and cost reduction. We are absolutely committed to achieving these reductions and associated cost savings through voluntary means and other measures such as non-filling of vacated posts. However, we may have to look at redundancies if the necessary savings are not reached."
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