Students at Cardiff University have reacted with shock and upset to news that the university is planning to cut 400 jobs, close degree courses, and merge some of the academic schools. News emerged on Tuesday that nursing, modern languages, music, ancient history, and religion and theology courses could all close and students have now been left with little information on what will happen to their studies.

Sophia Szczegolski-Jacobs, a final-year music student at Cardiff University, said she was shocked to hear the news. Sophia explained the music department has undergone a lot of change over the last few years since the university changed how assessments were conducted. However, despite her claiming these alterations caused a lot of unhappiness, she said she thought the changes were finally over.

She said: "This has come out of nowhere for a lot of us. I'm lucky I'll finish in July but I'm worried about my first- and second-year friends. I'm just really upset and really disappointed, especially as music is such an important part of Welsh culture so I can't understand why it's being cut. People from other subjects also like to come here, unwind, and join the societies and ensembles. We're all quite angry and sad about it." Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter.

Abigail Valentine, another third-year music student, called the proposed cuts "an absolute embarrassment and a disgrace". She continued: "They've been doing it quietly over the last few months with funding being cut, with the office being understaffed, and it was all leading to this. I'd say if they're going to do this to music what's next? English literature?"

For fellow music student Hannah Willman the decision to close the course in a country steeped with musical history seemed ludicrous. "For the main university in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, the land of song, to scrap its music department is nothing short of shameful."

Alongside music, foreign languages is also one of the courses set to close. Politics and Spanish student Beatrice White said she doesn't know any more than the general public and doesn't yet know how the news will affect her. She was especially worried about whether it would affect her year abroad, which is one of the main reasons she chose the course.

Beatrice said: "I haven't been told anything by the department. I've only seen bits online and that's not very helpful because I don't know what's fully going on. I know as much as the public and I haven't been able to speak to any of my teachers about it. I know it's going to impact my degree but I don't want to wait three months [until the end of the consultation] to see how badly it's going to be affected.

"It shows how much disinterest there is in preserving the humanities subjects and it will impact the teaching massively. It's important not just to focus on the STEM subjects, which seems to be the case. Languages in the UK really struggle and the department tries so hard so cutting it isn't helping that."

Grace Parkinson is a first-year law student and although her course should be okay she has friends whose academic futures are less certain. She said: "My flatmate is doing nursing and she's worried about future prospects. She's a first year and she's worried that she might not be able to continue and if she can that it will affect the quality of her teaching."

Emily Wheeler, a final-year psychology student, said a lot of her friends studied nursing at Cardiff and part of the appeal was the NHS bursary. "The NHS bursary is one of the main attractions to study nursing in Wales. I know the nursing school here are amazing so it just doesn't make sure given how much pressure the NHS is under," she said.

Emily also said she couldn't understand where the money was going. "It feel likes its constantly coming down to staff and students to take the brunt of it. I think everyone has a right to protest this."

Although social science student Jacob's course is safe his academic school is one of the ones which will undergo a merger and he's unsure how this will impact the quality of teaching. He said: "They've said my school could be merged with another but there's no intention to axe any of those courses. I am aware there could be some job losses in my department and that would be my primary concern. If we loose some staff members that could increase pressure on those remaining and potentially impact the quality of teaching for students."

He added: "I think its a massive shame for students and for staff who are going to lose their jobs. There's a lot of talent which will unfortunately be wasted or go elsewhere. I hope the university understand they need to work with staff and students to find a semi-viable solution."

Medicinal chemistry student George Slithers called the news disgraceful and said it was part of a wider problem with the treatment of arts subjects in the UK. "The subjects that are being cut show more evidence of the UK education system stepping on the arts as much as they can. Even in chemistry our school is being merged so who knows what that's going to entail?"

George added: "The proposed 400 job losses just aren't fair. They're hard-working people who want to better the education of students and conduct their own research in their field. They don't deserve to be laid off and their subjects don't deserve to be treated unfairly."

When speaking to some first-year medical students they said their course was also undergoing some restructuring to make classes larger. On nursing being cut they said: "It will definitely have a big impact on the feeling at the hospital. People in the healthcare subjects tend to stick together and make friends will each other because we have more work. For example we're living with a nurse next year."

Music student Sophie Ball added: "It's weird because music is really really important and we're all gutted about that but they're also scrapping nurses and nurses are in huge demand. They need so many nurses and now they've scrapped an entire degree of that. It doesn't make sense." You can see more about the proposals here and find union reaction here with mass walkouts by staff considered "likely".