COLEG Gwent lecturers will vote on whether to strike over job cuts as students prepare for key exams. Staff will be balloted on action after hearing that 45 jobs are to go.

Last week the Argus reported that the redundancies would mean the closure of the engineering departments at Ebbw Vale and Pontypool.

Now angry staff are to vote on whether to walk out in protest and have called on the management to resign.

One lecturer at the Pontypool campus, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "There is sheer disbelief not only at the announcement of job losses but also at the timing.

"The students are in the middle of exams and the management have created the most unstable environment possible. We want the minister for education to investigate the shortfall in funding."

The lecturer said that virtually all his colleagues had signed a letter to the management calling for their resignations.

The letter says: "As a staff we are completely united in our outright and implacable opposition to the management's proposals.

"We will oppose them with vigour and will not be sidetracked from our aim of ensuring the very best for the students and the future students in the Gwent Valleys."

But Coleg Gwent's acting principal, Jeffrey Robinson, defended the cutbacks, saying that the decision had been made to protect the college in the long-term.

Mr Robinson said: "We are the largest further education college in Wales and we have an obligation to manage our budget responsibly.

"There are 13 other colleges in deficit and in real terms we face a funding cut next year.

"A decision had to be made now in order to avoid storing up more problems for the future. No one who is currently studying on a course will be affected and for 90% of students there will be no change.

"This is a very successful college but we have to adapt and target resources where there is demand."

Teaching unions will ballot their members in the coming weeks on whether to call strikes.