Ulster University is to cut student numbers by 1,200 and staff by 210 due to a funding crisis.
Acting vice-chancellor Alastair Adair outlined the proposed cuts to staff in the university's four campuses - in Belfast, Coleraine, Jordanstown and Derry - today.
He said Northern Ireland's politicians need to engage in a "really mature debate" over the funding of higher education "because the implications of this are dire".
Mr Adair claimed the Stormont Executive is robbing young people of the opportunity for skills.
UU has seen its annual recurrent budget cut from £89 million in the 2010/11 academic year to a projected £70.7m (€98m)for this coming year.
And the 2015/16 allocation, which is £5m down on the spend in 2014/15, is a best case scenario as it is based on an overall Stormont spending plan that has not yet accounted for a £600m black hole in the power-sharing administration's finances.
Mr Adair highlighted that UU's current teaching spend per student was around £1,700 less than the average for English universities.
The UU had already announced that it would be taking in 250 fewer students this September.
Today it detailed further cuts to student places which will reduce the current 13,100 population of full-time students by 1,200 within three years.
Northern Ireland's other main university, Queen's in Belfast, is cutting its intake by around 290 in September due to budget pressures.
Commenting on the impact of the reduced intake across the two universities, Mr Adair said: "We will be exporting in the order of 500 students, many of whom will never come back to Northern Ireland. And that is a great brain drain and that will be an impediment to economic development."
In terms of staff, Ulster University hopes it can shed the proposed 210 jobs from its 2,800 workforce through voluntary redundancies.
Another consequence of the cuts will see UU review what courses it runs in future, with a number likely to be axed by the start of the 2016/17 academic year.
