The Expert Council on University Governance has delivered its recommendations – the depth of the crisis in our universities is clear. Thank you to every member who attended meetings, presented evidence, and stood up for better universities.
Read the report 👉 betterunis.nteu.au/inquiry/
MAJOR UNION WIN 🥳 The federal government will implement a new set of university governance principles to strengthen accountability, transparency and public trust following recommendations from the Expert Council on University Governance.
Read more: nteu.info/majorwin
@alisonbarnes.bsky.social
Senator @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social “accused Mr Churchill of lying to … the Senate when he’d … said underlying UniForm data and methodology had been released to ANU staff …
He said ANU had made an explainer … as the university didn’t have access to the raw data.”
region.com.au/anus-financi...
Some very interesting revelations about UniForum at Senate Estimates last night.
First, ANU exec appears to have misled the Senate by implying they gave staff access to the underlying UniForum data and methodology.
In fact, they gave staff little more than opaque scatter plots like this one👇
1/3
“The challenge for Australia’s top universities … is to align perceived prestige with academic integrity. That should mean linking executive incentives not to ranking positions alone but to measures like … equitable pay, staff retention and audit transparency.”
www.crikey.com.au/2025/10/10/a...
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said 2,000 ANU staff and students had signed a petition calling for the termination of Bishop’s appointment. “Do their views not matter to you? Are you only interested in the cabal of executives who back you?”
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/anu-cha...
Bishop repeatedly claimed she had the “full support” of the council and the university’s deans, and that it was her responsibility to ensure that when her term finished at the end of 2026 “we have stability in place”.
www.afr.com/politics/fed...
“Labor senator Tony Sheldon hammered the former foreign minister [Chancellor Julie Bishop] for racking up $150,000 in travel expenses as well as her performance overseeing the university for more than five years.”
citynews.com.au/2025/absolut...
“Ms Bishop had to take the exact dollar figure on notice, but said the “resignation package was what she was entitled to under the contract of engagement as vice-chancellor.”
Ms Bishop said Prof. Bell was paid part of her salary for a period of time rather than giving notice.”
tinyurl.com/4ma8ujkr
“Characterising [Julie Bishop’s] leadership as "chaotic", Mr Sheldon asked if she would apologise for several governance failures which he described as "an absolute shemozzle and ... an unmitigated stuff-up".”
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/908613...
"So, how do you turn a $90 million surplus into a $142.5 million deficit?
Easy. You just exclude nearly a quarter of a billion dollars of revenue that the auditor thought should be included."
tinyurl.com/5b4ruecb
@ouranu.bsky.social
@nteuact.bsky.social
Full text on r/anu on Reddit
“If the new leadership wants to rebuild trust … they need to explain why they think the audited accounts are so misleading … and what future plans they have that are so beneficial they are willing to take an axe to … students, … staff, and … reputation…”
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/908473...
VCs are “not interchangeable” with people who run banks or mining companies ... “Yet the current approach prices them as though they could walk into the C-suite of a listed company – a fiction that drives pay packages ever higher.”
@marijataflaga.bsky.social and @francismarkham.bsky.social
So many Australian colleagues put through a year of worries and uncertainty. All because Nous Consultancy only thrives on a scarcity narrative?
Bit if a reminder that those cuts can never be justified in pedagogical or academic term, whatever the spin.
Can you help us boost this signal? UTS colleagues are doing a governance project to talk back to the consultant led 'reform' of their university.
Please repost!! UTS people please have your say!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Associate Professor Nick Cheesman summed up the rebellion for the ABC, “The Vice-Chancellor would not have had to resign but for the increasingly organised revolt against ANU management by thousands of academics and their pupils.”
solidarity.net.au/highlights/e...
“The terms of reference limit Thom to investigating only the allegations raised during the August 12 Senate hearing. She will not look into broader issues of culture, governance and leadership at the university.”
www.afr.com/work-and-car...
“Herein lies the question: if not to sustain ANU’s once diverse range of courses and degrees, and if not to retain the knowledge and skills of its academics, then what is that $232.4 million revenue for?”
www.woroni.com.au/news/austral...
The ANU says it's in crisis. Does this look like a financial crisis to you?
'Cooking the books': national think tank questions ANU finances
Our research was covered by the Canberra Times today.
Read the report: australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-anu...
Read the article: www.canberratimes.com.au/story/907948...
Important new independent analysis from David Richardson and @richarddenniss.bsky.social at @australiainstitute.org.au
They argue that ANU’s books “appear designed to present a ‘crisis’ that is contradicted by the audited financial statements.”
australiainstitute.org.au/report/cooki...
“In a research paper from the @australiainstitute.org.au called *Cooking the books at the Australian National University*, David Richardson and @richarddenniss.bsky.social said the ANU's argument about its unhealthy financial position was "flimsy".”
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/907948...
Stop compulsory redundancies at Brunel University of London 26 September 2025 FacebookBlueskyTwitterWhatsAppEmailShare Brunel University of London management have expressed their intention to move forward with plans for further compulsory redundancies in 2025-26. This comes after a year of decimation in 2024-25, when the institution put more than a third of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy, and over 465 staff members, amounting to around 20% of the workforce, left Brunel as a result of multiple redundancy schemes.
Already 20% of the workforce gone and yet somehow still looking to impose compulsory redundancies? What on earth is going to be left of Brunel when this management team is done?
co-sign here: speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/stop-brunel-...
“Professorships have been awarded to academics with no PhD, little research, and no record of supervising postgraduates. Professor Paul Matin, of the Australian Association of University Professors, criticises this trend...”
www.woroni.com.au/news/inside-...
ANU colleagues and students - please share this post if you can:
The ANU governance project has extended our deadline to comment on the Draft report to next week - 7 October.
Here's a link to a feedback form, which also contains the link to the draft report:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
“It gave us false hope we could stop these changes through some form of consultation. …
The university keeps pushing that they will keep performance, however it is clear they are at the very least degrading the level of performance at the school.”
Mert Boyali
region.com.au/anus-removal...
“The university says it is saving itself from financial crisis, but a team of accounting professors have crunched the numbers and say they tell a different story.”
Depressingly familiar to our experience at ANU. Solidarity to colleagues at UTS. ✊
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
“[The CASS Dean’s] confusing statements about the future of the College’s academic architecture, and her refusal to engage with the substance of issues raised by colleagues, continue the pattern that has been so destructive to the University”
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/907511...
Much attention has been on ANU but the governance crisis is broad and deep across the sector. Close scrutiny needs to be applied *everywhere*. This is shameful from UTS management.
