Staff and students at the University of Gloucestershire will lobby its council today in a row over restructuring plans.The University and College Union (UCU) is demanding education bosses come clean over plans to axe jobs and merge faculties.

The demonstration at Oxtsalls campus in Gloucester got underway at 8.30am.

Worried staff say they are being kept in the dark after senior management announced plans to restructure.

The restructuring proposals come on top of university plans to close campuses in Cheltenham and London and to cut up to 16 jobs at its Francis Close Hall site.

The Pittville campus in Cheltenham - currently home to the university's Faculty of Media, Art and Communications - will shut by the end of 2011 and the university is selling its London campus.

Gwen Chaney, UCU chair at the university, said: "The lobby has been organised to ensure that the University of Gloucestershire comes cleans with its restructuring plans. Staff have suffered enough recently with the campus closures and job losses. Both staff and students have a right to know exactly what is going on at their university.

"Rumours over job losses and faculty restructures do nothing for the university's reputation, the staff or the students.

"We fully understand some institutions are facing difficult times and that's why we're always available to work through any problems.The process needs to be open and transparent."

Paul Drake, executive director of external relations at the university, said: "We are consulting all members of staff, which includes UCU members, on plans to review the faculty structure.

"The continued UCU scaremongering is destructive, and represents the views of a small number of staff who seem intent on damaging the positive future we are mapping out."