They said the changes, which could lead to possible redundancies, would have a serious and damaging effect on the pay and conditions of lecturing staff.

Teaching union EIS balloted its members at the college and 93% voted in favour of the one-day strikes.

The college denied the new structure would damage pay and conditions.

There are more walkouts planned over the next three weeks.

Bill Meach, Perth College EIS branch secretary, said: "Lecturers are not taking this action lightly.

Changing the structure was built on comments and ideas from the staff Mandy Exley, Principal of Perth College

"They have moved to strike action as a last resort in defence of their conditions and to defend the quality of education available to students at Perth College."

He added that staff at the college were "extremely concerned" by what he said was the failure of management at the college to offer a "sound educational rationale" for the planned changes.

"Management seems intent only on denying senior lecturing staff the right to be covered by the same conditions as other academic staff," Mr Meach said.

"They are eroding conditions for all new staff and offering no future at the college for those who are not prepared to apply for posts on worse conditions."

The college said the new academic management structure would actually improve pay while conditions would remain the same.

Paid leave

It said that a pay deal had been fixed in December which guaranteed the teaching staff would be among the top 10 best paid in the nation.

The college said the deal represented an increase of more than 6% this year, while allowing academic staff to keep 60 days of paid annual leave.

Mandy Exley, principal of Perth College, said: "EIS members claim that there is no educational basis for these changes but of course that's not true.

"As always we are driven by what is best for our students and customers.

"Changing the structure was built on comments and ideas from the staff."

She added: "These changes were not made in a vacuum.

"The world is changing, and Scotland's workforce has got to be able to compete in this global marketplace.

"We want Perth College to be at the centre of this demand, and have made these changes so that our students can benefit from being part of a top 10 college."