National Tertiary Education Union members will hold a stop work meeting between 2.30pm and 3.30pm.

Classes and other university services will be affected.

Newcastle branch president Suzanne Ryan said staff would discuss options for further industrial action.

The staff wage agreement expired a year ago but staff and management cannot agree on pay and conditions.

Staff recently withdrew from the university's annual open day.

Dr Ryan said issues included superannuation, conditions for casual and fixed-term employees and academic workloads.

She said the university's offer of a 10 per cent to 12 per cent pay rise over three years was not competitive for the sector where most had been offered 16 per cent or more.

"Union members believe the offer on the table is not adequate and they are not prepared to accept a wage offer or work conditions that do not reflect what they are worth," Dr Ryan said.

In a separate issue, security guards will patrol the university on police-style bicycles to try to improve safety.

The Hillbrick Eagle pushbikes are the same used by the NSW Police and campus security guards will use them to patrol the bushland campus and manoeuvre through peak hour traffic.

The move is part of a project to improve campus security after attacks on students in the past two years.

Security officer Paul Clark said the bikes helped security guards have a greater presence on campus.

As well, more than 6500 safety whistles were bought for staff and students. Each whistle produces a 120 decibel sound, similar to the noise level of a jet engine.