It says Canberra's music performance should be the financial responsibility of the Commonwealth, ACT government and private donors.

Chancellor and former Keating government foreign minister Gareth Evans issued a statement in support of the cuts, saying the School of Music in its current form was ''unsustainable''.

This followed a four-hour meeting of the 15-member council, comprising business people and academics including former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel, former Allen Consulting Group chairman Vince FitzGerald and Lowy Institute for International Policy deputy director Martine Letts.

Professor Evans said, ''Council expressed its full support for the change process that has been set in train, acknowledging that on both academic and budgetary grounds, the present curriculum and staffing arrangements were unsustainable.

''Council was strongly of the view that the School of Music has been a wonderful resource not only for ANU, but for the Canberra community and indeed the whole nation, and that it was particularly important in this context that its performance teaching stream remained credible and viable.

''Council acknowledged that Canberra was clearly underdone in terms of support for music performance, especially for the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, by comparison with other capitals. While ANU was prepared to continue contributing significantly to meeting this need, it was crucial that the ACT and federal governments as well as the philanthropic community, all played their part.''

The National Tertiary Education Union expressed ''severe disappointment'' that the council had chosen not to act given the overwhelming opposition from staff and students at the school to the proposed cuts and course changes, as well as an outpouring of community support for the school.

ACT division secretary Stephen Darwin said ''the council had the benefit of knowing the enormous human and reputational damage the vice-chancellor's proposal for the School of Music has generated. Yet they failed to act and, worse still, they have effectively endorsed this ill-conceived proposal.

''It is conspicuous that no support at all was offered by [the] council to school staff or students,'' he said.

''This decision merely compounds the poor judgments and cold indifference to staff and student welfare that have characterised this entirely flawed change model.''

Professor Young's three-week consultation period ended yesterday amid a last-minute flood of impassioned calls for him to rethink his position.

The postgraduate students of the School of Music yesterday accused Professor Young of failing to consider the impact of the changes on their ability to continue world-class research.

There are currently 35 postgraduate research students, representing almost $750,000 of annual income to the university, not including completion grants.

''The proposed changes to the staff and curriculum of the School of Music threaten the quality of postgraduate-level teaching and the attractiveness of the institution as a place to conduct high-level research,'' the students said.

''The impact of the proposed changes on postgraduate students has been an area of oversight.''