On 30 July 2025, students and staff gathered on Kambri to protest the ongoing rounds of staff redundancies and course cuts, following the release of an Organisational Change Proposal (OCP) for the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS).
The OCP, which is part of the broader Renew ANU restructure, proposes disestablishing dozens of roles, merging constituent schools such as Music, Art & Design, and Heritage & Museum Studies, and reducing program offerings across the college.
The protest was organised by Save Our Studies, Save Our Staff (SOS ANU) (formerly known as ‘No Cuts at ANU’) and the School of Art and Design Collective, two student-led groups, and aimed to highlight the ongoing job redundancies and course cuts across the University, especially within CASS and the ANU College of Science and Medicine.
The protest began at Kambri at 12pm before continuing in a march through campus to the School of Music. Speakers at the rally included representatives from the Australian Greens, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), and ANUSA.
“Since March 2024,1070 jobs have been cut across the university. That’s 1,000 areas of expertise, 1,000 people’s livelihoods. And to be sure, these cuts are happening as a result of Genevieve Bell’s decisions to run our university as a profit machine, rather than fighting to preserve the livelihoods of staff and the quality of our education,” said Pippa Newman, a member of SOS ANU, while addressing the gathered crowd.
The OCP includes 63 job redundancies across the College, with several sub-disciplines such as biological anthropology and gender studies set to be effectively dismantled. The School of Music faces up to seven staff redundancies and is slated to merge with the School of Art and Design.
These protests form part of a broader campaign that has intensified since the University publicly disclosed a projected $200 million budget deficit in 2024.
The University leadership, including Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell, has cited declining enrolments in domestic postgraduate courses, rising inflationary pressures, and a volatile international student market as key factors driving the restructure.
Staff, students, and union members, however, point to what they describe as corporate and financial mismanagement by the University and a prioritisation of commercial partnerships over education and research.
“We have high fees, a reliance on international students who pay exorbitant prices to access their education, and corporate and industry partnerships—these are now the sources of revenue for our universities,” continued Pippa.
“They run as businesses. Simply put, if your course or your research area isn’t making the ANU money through partnerships with weapons manufacturers or $368 billion submarine deals, it’s on the chopping block.”
In a media release on 27 July, SOS ANU condemned the university’s direction under Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell, calling her “a product of the corporate university model.” The group demands an immediate halt to staff cuts, Bell’s resignation, and a government commitment to fully fund public universities.
“We are committed to disrupting business as usual at the university until management and the government accede to our demands.”
More to come.
Graphics by Shé Chani
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