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Bosses of a northern England university have been accused of making "disastrous" foreign investments - including some condemned by Amnesty International and the United Nations.
Academics' union UCU called on chiefs at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston yesterday to "open the books" and answer its allegations.
In its report Empire Built on Sand: UCLan's great overseas gamble, UCU examines a series of investments in Sri Lanka, Thailand, China and Cyprus by UCLan which the union says appear to have lost considerable sums of money.
The union believes the fund may have been raised from public money and assets and students studying in Britain.
Amnesty criticised UCLan for a partnership venture with the government of Sri Lanka, which has a record of human rights abuses.
Further criticism related to an investment in Cyprus, which the UN claimed had not involved a proper consultation process.
UCU regional official Martyn Moss said: "When the UN and Amnesty International are drawing attention to your activities, it is time for far more scrutiny."
Last year UCLan bosses attempted to turn the university into a company.
It failed, but UCU says it has set subsidiary firms "to move money around" and holding groups to invest overseas.
UCLan plans to axe 75 teaching posts and downgrade others at its sites in Preston.
The union says £7.5 million had been written off by UCLan's chief holding company, Centralan Holdings. It added that because of UCLan's complex web of companies, it is impossible to determine how much the failed overseas projects have cost or who has funded them.
UCU also said it was also concerned that £470,000 of consultancy services provided for the university appeared to have been delivered by the same people who ordered the work.
Mr Moss added: "Seventy-five jobs at UCLan are at risk of redundancy and we fear that other teaching posts are going to be downgraded.
"Are local jobs and wages being put at risk to fund these risky international investments? All we want to do is sit down with the university and go through the figures."
