Cardiff University has announced plans to shed 400 academic staff – almost 10% – and cut subjects including nursing, music and modern languages, saying it will run out of money in four years if no changes are made.

Academics, union representatives and students expressed shock and dismay at the scale of the cuts, which were announced at staff meetings at the Russell Group university on Tuesday.

The University and College Union described the reductions as “cruel” and said they would harm teachers and students not only at the university, which is the biggest in Wales, but also across the country.

Welsh government ministers expressed concern at the loss of nursing courses. A government spokesperson said: “Universities are independent institutions, but we are very disappointed that nursing courses form part of these proposals.”

It said it would work with Health Education and Improvement Wales, the strategic workforce body for NHS Wales, to make sure the number of nurses trained in Wales did not fall.

University leaders have not yet spelled out when the cuts, if ratified, would take place and what will happen to students on affected courses. A 90-day consultation will take place and the university has not ruled out compulsory redundancies.

The Guardian has seen a slide shown at the meetings that said the university had an operating deficit of £31.2m in 2023-24, its international student applications were “plummeting”, and if it carried on as it was it would “run out of cash in four years”.

The vice-chancellor, Prof Wendy Larner, said: “It is no longer an option for us to continue as we are. We have worked diligently to create initial proposals for a slightly smaller university, refocused around our core and emerging strengths: a university ready to leverage new academic opportunities, prepare students for an adapting world and meet changing market demands as they arise

“I know that these proposals impact some staff more than others and they will cause a great deal of uncertainly and anxiety for those potentially impacted.”

Durham University also announced on Tuesday that it planned to cut about 200 staff – though not academics – to reduce costs by £10m. It will seek to save another £10m, with half of those savings academic staff, in 2025-26.

The university said compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out. Prof Karen O’Brien, vice-chancellor of Durham University, said: “We cannot fulfil our aims of remaining a world-class centre of research and education without a firmly established and sustainable financial base. We appreciate today’s announcement will be concerning to staff.”

The proposed changes at Cardiff include:

• A reduction of academic headcount by about 400 FTE (7% of total workforce), using compulsory redundancy only if absolutely necessary. ​

• Ceasing subjects and programmes in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology.

• Increasing student-to-staff ratios across the university.

• Bringing “complementary” disciplines together through school mergers. For example, the creation of the school of natural sciences (merging chemistry, Earth sciences and physics) and school of global humanities (merging English, communication and philosophy, Welsh, and remaining elements of history archaeology and religion and modern languages).

An academic, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: ‘The university management has kept pretending everything was OK, although no one with a brain believed them. Anyone knows that in a crisis you have to act early to avoid cutting too deeply. They’ve ducked that. Now they’ve gone into panic mode.”

Cefin Campbell, Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for education, said: “Four hundred jobs lost at Wales’s biggest university will have a devastating impact and damage Wales’s reputation as a nation of learning.

“Talks of ceasing some programs within certain departments including nursing, when Wales is short of 2,000 nurses is unthinkable. And the knock-on effects will be devastating for the city of Cardiff, the wider region, Wales, and our future generations.”