Climate change protesters Extinction Rebellion will stage 'die ins' at university campuses during Freshers' Week.
The environmental activist group will carry out two demonstrations at Newcastle and Northumbria University to highlight their cause to students and staff.
Members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) say they will call on the universities to take a lead on communicating the crisis and to take actions reflecting the scale and urgency of climate change.
The first die-in protest, where participants lie on the ground as if dead, is set to take place at Newcastle University near to the Students' Union and the Arches at 1.45pm on Wednesday, September 25.
At 2.30pm, the group will march with banners towards nearby Northumbria University where a second die-in will take place in the courtyard outside the library and Students' Union.
The activists say the die-ins symbolise the kind of bleak future we will face without radical and urgent action to tackle climate change.
Organisers from XR have called on Northumbria University to follow in the footsteps of Newcastle University and declare a climate emergency.
Newcastle University took the step of declaring a climate emergency in April with the aim of achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2040.
Jo Childs, a fourth year medical student at Newcastle University, said: "Universities are places of innovation and creativity: important civic institutions whose role is to discover the truth and share their knowledge for the benefit of society. As such, they have a great duty and great opportunity to be at the lead of the response to climate change.
"I’m proud that Newcastle University has such a large and active team working on sustainability, and that they have taken the important step of declaring a climate emergency.
"However, they now they need to make it feel like an emergency. As a first step we would like urgent communications to be sent out to all students and staff stating exactly what the climate emergency is: why it is an emergency and what is being done about it."
Students and staff will be invited to join the group and to go to their ‘Heading for Extinction and What to do about it’ talk on October 4 at 6.30pm at Northumbria University.
Laura Pacitti, a second year biomedical science at Northumbria University, said: "We cannot ignore how dire this emergency is, and we will not be ignored!"
The XR group has already staged a number of protests and die-in events around Newcastle.
Slow cycles over the Tyne Bridge and through Gosforth have been held to disrupt traffic with the aim of making drivers consider alternative transport methods.
