ANU cost-cutting program lacked evidence, audit finds

Australian National University's (ANU) leadership approved a $250 million cost-cutting program known as Renew ANU without clear evidence of why it was needed or whether it was achievable, according to a new report from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).

In its findings, ANAO found the ANU Council had approved the restructuring program "without a clear understanding of the problem, the options available, implementation risks, or the expected impact of the program on the university's purpose, financial sustainability, and people".

It did however highlight that the ANU, like many universities in Australia, had a chronic income problem that it was struggling to deal with.

"Growth in Australian government funding and student fees has slowed in recent years, and since 2018 they have not been enough to cover ANU's expenses without supplementation from other income sources," the report said.

"This gap has been approximately 25 per cent since 2020, although there was some improvement in 2021 (to 12.0 per cent) and 2025 (to 20.3 per cent), due to declining expenses."

Audit calls for better reporting, independent advice

The report noted that between 2020 and 2024, a time when Professor Brian Schmidt was vice-chancellor, significant financial pressure had built up as a result of "optimistic revenue assumptions and limited spending control".

It concluded that while the Renew ANU program, which began in late 2024, delivered salary savings of $74.8 million, the program itself with associated redundancies cost $35.9 million and that "major" risks remained "particularly around staff impacts and reliance on future growth in international student numbers".

The report recommended that the university learn from its now-aborted Renew ANU program "to ensure such proposals are supported by a documented business case" that clearly shows key aims, realistic options and clear impacts of any future cost saving proposal.

It also recommended that the university improve its reporting systems to the council, including explaining the university's full financial position and "commissioning independent assurance as to the effectiveness of financial control improvements introduced since 2020".

Restructure 'unnecessary', Pocock says

Senator David Pocock, who has regularly called for scrutiny of governance at ANU and last week questioned the ANAO about its report in Senate Estimates, said that the report's findings were significant.

Senator Pocock said he wanted to "set the gold standard at the federal level" and update the ANU Act to ensure the university's governance framework more closely reflected those of the world's leading universities.

"There's a lot we can do in terms of the composition of the board, having more elected members who are accountable to the university, and then really critically having some sort of check and balance on decisions that are made at a council level," he said.

The National Tertiary and Education Union's ACT secretary Lachlan Clohesy similarly welcomed the report and said it justified many of the recent criticisms the union had made about the ANU's management and decisions.

"This report shows that council didn't have sufficient information to know that it [Renew ANU] was even necessary."

Like Senator Pocock, Mr Clohesy called for changes to the ANU's governance structure as well as increased federal funding through the Job-ready Graduates program, and mandatory independent financial analysis before major university decisions.

"When these plans come out from university leaderships, that's councils and the millionaire vice-chancellors, I think they should be subjected to rigorous independent scrutiny," he said.

'We take this seriously', ANU makes changes

The National Audit Office report is one of multiple reviews or inquiries currently being held into the governance of the ANU.

During the time the ANAO investigation was underway several senior leaders at the university resigned including Julie Bishop as chancellor, Genevieve Bell as vice-chancellor and several appointed members of the ANU Council.

The ANU officially ceased the Renew ANU process in September last year while acknowledging work was still needed to stabilise the university's finances.

The university is due to release a new strategic plan in August this year.

The ANU acknowledged the ANAO's report in a statement, saying it had cooperated with the auditor throughout the process and had adopted all the recommendations.

The spokesperson said ANU had already implemented some of the recommendations in the report including improving financial reporting to the council and documentation of financial discussions in council meetings.

"The ANU has committed to including broader modelling and scenario planning as part of future financial decision-making," the spokesperson said.