The Australian Music Students’ Association (AMUSA) has released a statement regarding the Australian National University’s proposed cuts to its School of Music, calling it “an appalling proposal that is entirely offensive to all musicians around the country, and to the very craft of music itself”.

Released after a 12-hour “protest jam” by ANU students on Wednesday 23 July, the statement refutes ANU’s claims that current students will not be impacted and asserts that the cuts will lead to a drop in education quality and “sterilise Canberra’s musical scene”.

ANU students at the ‘Don’t Stop The Music!’ protest on 23 July. Photo © Alexander Poirier

“The Australian Music Students’ Association outright rejects this insulting proposal and all its parts, and expresses our sincere disappointment that ‘modernisation’, ‘alignment of research’, and ‘longevity’ has been used as a guise to cover up the continued failures of leadership, and financial and governance mismanagement that has plagued the ANU for over a decade,” AMUSA said.

Aiming to save $100m, ANU’s proposed changes include folding the School of Music into a brand new School of Creative and Cultural Practice, which will also include the School...