The university last year cut the equivalent of 16 full-time jobs from the humanities division.
More job losses are expected in the human nutrition department and the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences this year.
A review of general staff is also expected to result in staff cuts and about 140 staff are on short-term contracts pending the review's outcome.
When asked if there was more emphasis at the university on efficiency and keeping costs under control, Prof Squire said: ''This is not a new emphasis.''
He pointed to the university's ''Strategic Direction to 2020'' document, signed off by the university council in 2013, which said the university needed to evolve to meet the challenges of a ''changing world''.
The attention some departments in the humanities and sciences had received was because of steadily dropping student numbers in those departments.
''This has caused us to think carefully about how we can ensure departments are as healthy and as robust as they possibly can be in the future, by considering refreshed curricula, advancement into new research fields and the balance of staffing to ensure success.''
The university's strategic direction goes into more detail about why keeping costs under control is important, saying given the university was publicly funded it must be ''mindful of the need to manage risk effectively and use resources efficiently'',
It goes on to say that in the ''fiscally constrained environment'' expected up until 2020, the university would ''carefully scrutinise internal activities, processes and structures for both efficiency and effectiveness''.
''Those that do not support the university's goals will be modified or discontinued.
''In areas where academic endeavour is not strong, decisions will continue to be made either to invest in improving performance or to reorganising and, if required, reducing or ending our involvement.''
