The University of Otago has announced it is cutting 160 jobs.

Otago University Source: 1 NEWS

The university, which currently employs about 2300 full-time equivalent general staff, announced the revised business case today, saying it had taken consultation submissions on board while considering the changes.

A decision has now been made to proceed with the "shared services" model.

The university had originally proposed cutting 182 positions.

The roles come from across support services, and will lead to savings of nearly $15m annually, it said.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne said in a statement that "feedback from staff has strengthened the business model that I presented today.

"The overwhelming feedback was generally supportive of the model ... there is wide recognition that we need to change the way we do business in several areas and we need to focus our collective efforts to get this right," Professor Hayne said.

"As I said in July, I highly value our staff, and we will do our utmost to offer support through this period of change.

"I appreciate that staff have engaged in this process in such high numbers and the quality of submissions was valuable.

"I am more confident than ever that we need to make these changes if we are to adapt to the highly complex environment in which we operate."