At a meeting on Friday union members endorsed the deal reached for academic staff that would ensure there are no forced redundancies until May next year, and no pay cuts in the enterprise agreement.

Instead, a "special addition leave" purchase was agreed to, where staff would purchase up to 15 days of leave, to be taken at a time of the University's direction.

This could be implemented all at once and result in a shutdown, at a time to be determined, National Tertiary Education Union acting UOW branch president Rodney Vickers said.

Read more: 200 jobs saved as eleventh-hour agreement reached at UOW

"In a sense it's a win, compared to the original proposals that were put forward by the university," he said.

"But anything where staff have to give up wages and conditions is a concern of course."

UOW also will not implement 150 forced redundancies before April 30 next year.

While ultimately the leave purchase would mean staff get less money over a year, Associate Professor Vickers said it was preferred to university management's plan for a 10-15 per cent pay cut over 12-18 months.

He said 15 days would be about six per cent less money.

"It spreads it out a little bit more, and essentially the university's proposal was a straight pay cut ... and in terms of workload, you get some leave out of it, you get something back."

He said 84 per cent of the approximately 400 staff members on the online meeting voted for the agreement variation for academic staff. And while they didn't vote to endorse the deal for professional (non-academic staff), "we wouldn't actively oppose it".

"Nobody will be forced out of the university before May 1," he said.

Meanwhile, students held a protest outside the university library against Federal Government fee changes which they said would hike fees for humanities subjects by up to 113 per cent.

"This fee hike is the most significant attack upon students since the Howard government, and we're not going to take it laying down," Wollongong Undergraduate Student Association education officer Robin Pierson said.

"Students everywhere will be fighting the Government until they withdraw the hike.

"Staff at UOW and other universities are also under attack. We're determined to fight not only for their jobs and against sackings, but against all pay cuts."

Vice-Chancellor Paul Wellings welcomed the agreement in a statement on Thursday.

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