York University officials are back at the bargaining table for the second day in a row in an effort to put an end to a strike that has pushed 50,000 students out of their classes for nearly two months.

A mediator brought the two sides back into negotiations Saturday where talks continued at a North York Holiday Inn boardroom for 12 hours. Officials say if a deal is reached Sunday, it would take at least 72 hours to notify students and get the school and faculty ready to open again.

Students have been out of school since Nov. 6, when 3,400 contract employees and teaching assistants walked off the job.

If a deal is reached, the Reading Week break would be cancelled and the semesters would be compressed. It will also take 13 additional classes to make up for the lost days.

Miguel Bique, an exchange student from Spain, said he's looking forward to finishing up his business degree sooner rather than later.

"I'm still waiting to see if classes are going to begin or not," he said. "(In the meantime) I'm going to get to know the campus and the city and just wait for them to tell us something."

Student Katherine Pearce says even if the two sides reach a deal, it will be hard to get back into the swing of things after spending nearly two months in limbo.

"I have lost my momentum for the year," she said. "I guess it's going to be hard getting back into the school work. I was going to try to keep it up but eventually it just petered off."

The university has suggested from the start that the two sides enter into binding arbitration to reach a deal.

The union says it is fighting for job security for its contract employees as well as improved wages. It is also asking that benefits are restored to 2005 levels.

The university is offering a 9.25-per-cent wage increase over three years, while the union is believed to be seeking 11 per cent over two years.

"We have done our work to revise our proposals and have been ready to meet for more than two weeks," Graham Potts, lead negotiator for the union, said in a news release issued Tuesday.

"We can only hope that the university's negotiators have done the same kind of work and are ready to move toward a settlement."

The university refused to comment about the latest round of negotiations. In a statement released to CTV Toronto, officials said the school is "keen to ensure negotiations will be allowed to continue without speculation until negotiations are complete."

With a report from CTV Toronto's Dana Levenson