The University of Wolverhampton will not take on students for 138 of its undergraduate and postgraduate courses in September.
A drop in revenue and rising costs alongside the pandemic meant the university faced a “very challenging financial landscape”.
A “robust recovery plan of action” is now in the works, a spokesman said.
Existing students will continue to be taught. A mutually agreed termination program is also in place.
About a fifth of the courses affected are in the performing arts and former student Joe Logan said he was “devastated” by the news.
Mr Logan, now a performing arts teacher at a secondary school, said local students could miss out on career choices if they didn’t have access to resources “on the doorstep”.
“I owe a lot to the course at the performing arts department — I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in musical theater there,” he said.
“And as someone who’s from the Midlands it’s just phenomenal to me to have such an amazing performing arts center in the Midlands and the idea of this being gone from the Midlands… feels like we are we do so rob our youth so much.”
In a statement, the university said it wanted to consolidate some areas but “in most cases” it would offer viable alternative offers to applicants looking to join in September.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly increased costs for the university, while at the same time, as with many similar universities, our enrollments have declined with the associated loss of income,” a spokesman said.
“This has been exacerbated by difficulties with international travel that have impacted international students during the pandemic.”
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