BBCDundee University is to cut 632 jobs in a bid to address a £35m deficit.
Staff were informed of the news by interim principal Shane O’Neill at a meeting in the university, which was also held online.
The move represents about 20% of the university’s workforce of more than 3,000 people.
Prof O’Neill said an external investigation would also be conducted into “what went wrong.”
Former principal Prof Iain Gillespie told staff in November that job losses were “inevitable” and blamed “an extremely challenging period” for the UK higher education sector.
Prof Gillespie resigned a month later after the university defended a £7,000 business trip he took to Hong Kong with a colleague.
Amanda Millar, the university’s court chairwoman, resigned with immediate effect last month.
Local members of the The University and College Union (UCU) Scotland are in the final week of a three-week strike over proposed job cuts.
Local Scottish Labour MSP Michael Marra said the news would be “devastating” for university staff and the city of Dundee.
He said: “I think this is probably one of the biggest redundancies in the history of Scottish higher education.
“What’s clear is that there is a story of huge failure of leadership from the university over a period of years.
“There’s still, I think, a whole story to come about how on earth they managed to create such a financial mess.
“But it’s people who are paying with their livelihoods.”
