Thousands of university students at Acadia University may be returning to class soon, now that the two sides in the three-week-old faculty strike have reached an agreement.

The university and its faculty association announced the tentative deal early Monday after 60 hours of negotiating with the help of a mediator.

"We've been waiting for three weeks now to get back to the classroom with a contract that can secure quality education at Acadia, and now it looks like we have it," said Andrew Biro, spokesman for the Acadia University Faculty Association.

'Acadia can begin the healing process.' —Jeremy Novak, Acadia student

Neither side is commenting on the terms of the agreement.

Biro said faculty members will vote on it as soon as possible. The university's board of governors will also have to ratify the deal for it to go into effect.

Acadia's senate, the university's highest academic council, is expected to meet Monday to decide how the rest of the school term will be handled.

"Certainly the objective last evening was how can we get things on track again and how quickly can we get students back to class. It's a question we'll be wrestling with very shortly," said university spokesman Scott Roberts.

Biro said classes could resume by the middle or end of this week.

Fourth-year student Jeremy Novak is glad this "mess" seems to be resolved, but he wants a few more days without classes to allow people who left the Wolfville campus time to get back.

Of Acadia's 3,400 full-time students, about half are believed to have gone home to wait out the strike.

Once everyone is back, "Acadia can begin the healing process," said Novak. "Let's just hope … this type of mess won't happen three to four years down the road."

Professors and librarians set up picket lines on Oct. 15, making this the second strike to hit the university in three years.

Nova Scotia Minister of Environment and Labour Mark Parent appointed a mediator on Thursday when the two sides were still at an impasse over wages.