Vice Chancellor Iain Martin says the organisation is staring down the barrel of a $300 million loss due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It's a blow the Warrnambool campus, and indeed the south-west community, does not need. Professor Martin says tough decisions need to be made and there will be job losses through redundancies.

He predicts it will take between three and five years for the university's revenue to return to levels recorded in 2019. But could that mean the closure of the city campus?

Deakin already contributes about $9.5 million a year to keep the Warrnambool campus viable and in 2016 a concerted community campaign helped to secure its future, when it received a federal government bailout.

The Vice Chancellor at the time, Professor Jane den Hollander, said it was not possible for Deakin to remain in Warrnambool on a "business as usual basis", in the face of declining enrolments and increasing annual losses.

"If something does not change these losses are predicted to rise and the campus is increasingly unsustainable," Professor den Hollander said.

The university, under the leadership of campus director Alistair McCosh, has worked hard to grow and sustain enrolments. With the unprecedented times we are facing, will this be enough? Through no fault of its own, the city's campus is facing a tough challenge. But there is some positives.

Late last year Deakin's leaders said a $2 million federal government grant to investigate hydrogen-powered technology would be a "pillar" of the campus' future.

"The future for this campus has to rely on us looking to new things, not simply replicate the undergraduate portfolio we had in the past," Professor Martin said.

In 2019 the university celebrated a 50 year connection with the city through its various forms as the Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education and now Deakin. Here's hoping it can see out another 50.