A 60-year-old music school is the latest cultural institution to win a reprieve from sweeping cuts to the Australian National University (ANU).

The Canberra institution has wound back plans to relegate the school to “programme” status within a new School of Creative and Cultural Practice, as part of a wider restructure of the College of Arts and Social Sciences (Cass).

The School of Creative and Cultural Practice will not be going ahead and no structural changes will be made to the School of Music, university leaders have told staff.

The rethink comes after an outpouring of community concern over the proposed Cass changes was reflected in more than 1,100 submissions to the university.

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“The level of engagement in this consultation reflects how deeply staff, students and the wider community value the humanities, social sciences and creative arts at ANU,” said interim vice-chancellor Rebekah Brown.

She said the need for cuts had diminished after “higher-than-expected voluntary separations, staff attrition, retirements and vacancy management” had improved the university’s financial position.

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The plans for the School of Music – which included winding back the teaching of performance, composition, theory and musicology to focus on “core strengths” in music production, technology and “music and well-being” – had provoked a visceral community reaction.

The artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, violinist Richard Tognetti, condemned the proposals as an “act of cultural vandalism”. The Canberra Symphony Orchestra that it could run out of musicians while eight students over a claimed breach of consumer law.

While the school will now retain its current structure, ANU has flagged programme changes to provide “greater flexibility in how students can structure their study”. They include rolling the performance and composition majors into a new “major in music practice”.

Students will be able to specialise in either performance or composition “or combine the two, reflecting the way contemporary musicians work across creative modes and technologies”, the university said.

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ANU’s executive dean of arts and social sciences, Bronwyn Parry, said a new “Performance+ Hub” would also offer additional one-to-one instrumental or vocal tuition. “We remain committed to performance, student experience and the partnerships that connect our musicians to Australia’s cultural life,” she said.

Parry said the consultations had also revealed “deep” community support for two of the school’s other cultural icons, the Australian Dictionary of Biography and the Australian National Dictionary Centre.

Brown had signalled that all three institutions would continue in their current form after she became interim vice-chancellor in September. She deferred changes to the music school until at least 2026 and said a philanthropic benefactor had agreed to keep the dictionary centre afloat for at least another two years, while funds would be “reallocated” to prevent job losses at the National Centre for Biography, which produces the dictionary of biography.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that former vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell received a severance package of over A$420,000 (£208,000) after she stepped down on 11 September. The package included a “cessation sum” of almost A$363,000 and about A$62,000 in superannuation.

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Bell has been contracted for a five-year term at the university’s School of Cybernetics at a rate of A$583,000 a year, including superannuation. She will also receive a A$200,000 research start-up fund following her return from study leave.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com