Australian National University announces more job cuts as it seeks to save $250 million

Australia Broadcast Center

5 hours ago

The Australian National University (ANU) is planning to cut another 59 jobs in its bid to save $250 million by 2026.
The additional job losses come on top of the 41 proposed job cuts announced last month.
The positions are across academic and professional roles from within the College of Science and Medicine, the College of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Research and Innovation Portfolio.
The staff now have three weeks to provide their response and feedback to what the university intends to do.
Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell said that while the job losses were necessary, the proposal was not set in stone and planned staff cuts could be changed.
"Last year, for instance, we had multiple change plans and in each one of those instances, the number of staff that was impacted changed and it became a smaller number in those plans," she said.
Professor Bell also acknowledged that the impact of the cuts was unclear, but that the broad offering of courses would continue.
"It's not yet clear what the impact will be on courses, but the reality is we have programs that we are committed to and we'll continue to deliver those," she said.
"It's really important that we maintain a really strong research portfolio and a really strong transformative educational experience."
The union representing staff at the ANU says the cuts are eroding the academic stature and reputation of the university.
In a statement, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, National Tertiary Education Union ACT division secretary, said the ANU shouldn't be proposing more job cuts.
"These job losses lay at the feet of the vice-chancellor," he said.
This latest round of cuts to reduce staff and money is part of a broader savings plan the ANU says is necessary to ensure the long-term future of the institution.
"In October of last year, we agreed with [the ANU] Council that we needed to take $250 million out of the recurring operating base of the university," Professor Bell said.
"Which was a big shift for the university but was the amount we needed so that we were no longer spending more than we were earning."
The key aim for the ANU is to break even financially for 2026, and the total savings planned include $100 million less in staff salaries.
"We are making strides along that journey for the $100 million we needed to take out of the salary of the university," Professor Bell said.
In a statement, the ANU added that "it is anticipated that no organisational change proposals will be released beyond 31 October, 2025 for the 2025 year".
But the university said it was unknown at this stage whether further changes or cuts would be required in 2026.
The latest proposed savings come just weeks after Federal Education Minister Jason Clare raised "significant concerns" about the ANU with the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.
A "live compliance process" — a review into the concerns raised at the ANU — is ongoing.