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Executives from a private firm that is set to take over English language training for international students at Newcastle 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ faced staff protests when they arrived for a meeting at the university this week. Into 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Partnerships Ltd is close to finalising arrangements to finance and jointly run a new English language centre at Newcastle, after successfully closing similar deals at the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of East Anglia and Exeter 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ. Academic union leaders have declared a dispute with Newcastle and called for a national campaign opposing Into's activities, which include proposals to privatise English language training at six other institutions, including Oxford Brookes 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ. Into and Newcastle claim that the terms and conditions of employment of the 25 academics and ten academic-related English language staff at Newcastle will be protected when they transfer to the private company. But Jenny Toomey, Newcastle 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ and College Union branch secretary, said: 'Their terms and conditions will be protected for 12 months. After that they will have no protection from possible redundancy.'