One of Scotland's leading universities has unveiled a £300m estates strategy that is set to transform its city centre campus by 2020.

One of Scotland's leading universities has unveiled a £300m estates strategy that is set to transform its city centre campus by 2020.

The proposals by Strathclyde University in Glasgow will see the construction of four new buildings and the extensive refurbishment of others.

The student union building on John Street will be disposed of, while the university is also planning to vacate several buildings along George Street currently leased from Glasgow City Council.

The proposals to cut the size of Strathclyde's estate by some 40% will be funded by a combination of capital grants from the Scottish Funding Council, borrowing, money from the university's own income, and proceeds from the sell-off of land and existing buildings, including the listed Royal College in George Street, which could interest a hotel chain.

Strathclyde has already announced plans to sell off its Jordanhill site in the west end of Glasgow for housing and move the education faculty into the city centre as part of a proposed new merged faculty with law, arts and social sciences.

The current financial climate has forced a delay in the sale, but the university still intends to leave Jordanhill by 2012.

Academic staff and students will be studying the plans closely over the coming months, but there have already been concerns. Some have questioned the proposed sale of the union building without a like-for-like replacement, while others ask why the university is spending so much money on buildings when it is cutting up to 140 jobs.

The official student body is in discussion with university authorities, but Fiona McPhail, co-ordinator of a group of students and staff called the Anti-Cuts Action Network, said: "There has been no proper consultation over these changes and the whole underlying rationale seems to be about prioritising profitable courses at the expense of education as a whole. Surely the staff are the university's most important asset."

Graham Roddick, the university's director of estates management, said: "Every penny we spend on utilities or maintenance in buildings we don't need is a penny less to spend on students and staff, and we need to be smaller and more flexible."

The university also believes the strategy will have academic benefits by concentrating all its faculties in a number of integrated zones on one city centre site.

"By bringing departments together in a number of different zones, we hope to create new, internationally-leading research collaborations served by state-of-the-art teaching facilities," added Mr Roddick.

The Campus Vision 2020 will now go out to consultation before plans are submitted to the university's ruling court later this year.