More than 200 PhD students at the crisis-hit UEA say they are fearing for the university's future amid its financial turmoil.

The university is currently considering making compulsory redundancies as it looks to shave £45m from its budget over the next three years.

It has prompted 213 postgraduate researchers to pen an open letter to bosses warning of the impact the redundancies could have on one of the organisation's most respected sectors.

Currently the UEA has one of the best reputations for research in the country, with 91pc of its research projects classified as "world-leading" or "internationally excellent".

But the researchers say they fear the proposed redundancies will put this reputation in jeopardy.

The letter reads: "While we are aware there is an urgent need to address the current deficit, it is our opion that the current plans put the future success of the university at risk by pushing out numerous highly-specialised areas of expertise, undermining the quality of teaching and research and potentially leading to even higher drop-out rates - including against the postgraduate researcher community."

They fear changes in supervision will drive more and more researchers away from the university.

Michael Kyriacou, chairman of the UEA branch of the University and College Union, said: "We fear the financial situation at the UEA will have devastating consequences for our PGR membership and their vital contribution to academic life at the institution."

A UEA spokesperson said: "We appreciate this is an unsettling time for many in our community.

"We have well-established processes for supporting changes to our postgraduate researchers' supervision arrangements, for example when a supervisor retires or leaves for another role.

"If alternative supervision arrangements are required, options will be discussed with individual researchers to ensure the best way forward for them.

"We have already stressed that compulsory redundancies would be our last resort."