By Darcy Davitt
ANU’s newly appointed interim Vice-Chancellor Rebekha Brown has announced there will be no more involuntary redundancies, halting plans for further forced job cuts under ‘Renew ANU’.
On September 18, Professor Brown informed staff at a town hall meeting that the combination of higher-than-expected uptake of the Voluntary Separation Scheme alongside increased rates of staff attrition meant that additional forced redundancies were no longer required in the areas of the university currently undergoing “change proposals”.
These five areas include the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), College of Science and Medicine (CoSM), Campus Environment (CE), Residential Experience Division (RED), and the Academic Portfolio.
While staff across these areas will not be compelled to leave their roles, structural changes and realignments will continue in line with the ongoing change proposals.
Professor Brown explained that involuntary redundancies will “continue as planned” across the areas with already approved “implementation plans”, including Information Technology Services (ITS), Information Security Office (ISO) and Planning and Service Performance (PSP).
The interim Vice-Chancellor confirmed that “once implementation plans for the above areas are finalised and delivered, the Renew ANU program will be considered complete”.
The announcement received applause from attending staff and students, while the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has welcomed the decision as a “fantastic win for ANU staff” and a “significant step in the right direction”. The union’s ACT division secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, said the interim VC “deserves credit for reading the room accurately”.
However, student group ‘No Cuts at ANU’ has refrained from celebrating the announcement, claiming that Professor Brown failed to “address the root of the anger at the ANU”. In a statement, the group criticised what they describe as “an active refusal to reverse the cuts that have already occurred”.
Professor Brown addressed the ongoing scrutiny and media attention surrounding the ANU, emphasising a commitment to increased transparency and reliance on internal expertise rather than consultants in decision-making processes.
Professor Brown also outlined her ambition for ANU to regain its status as the #1 ranked Australian university by 2032, focusing on improving its employer reputation and increasing the number of citations per faculty.
Additionally, it was announced that an anonymous philanthropic gift has guaranteed the continued operation of the Australian National Dictionary Centre for the next two years, preventing its planned closure. The National Centre of Biography will also remain open, supported by reallocated funds while it seeks alternative, long-term financial support.
Questions remain over the future of the School of Music, after more than 40 high-profile musicians signed an open letter last week urging against a proposed restructure that would see it absorbed into a new School of Creative and Cultural Practice.
The interim Vice-Chancellor said that university leadership would continue to discuss the future of the School of Music, in light of forced redundancies having been ruled out. However, the nature of its future curriculum and operations is yet to be finalised, with one-on-one instrument lessons still set to be abolished.
An ANU spokesperson told Observer that “the University is in discussions with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra about how we can continue to work in partnership to support classical performance education in the Canberra region in exciting new ways.”
Professor Brown, who has taken over the role of Vice-Chancellor until “at least the end of next year”, recently replaced Genevieve Bell after she tendered her resignation two weeks ago. Renew ANU was launched under Bell’s leadership, with the goal of aligning revenue with expenditure by 2026.
The new VC confirmed that four academic colleges have met these budget targets through vacancy management, retirements and attrition – the College of Business and Economics (CBE), College of Systems and Society (CSS), College of Law, Governance and Policy (CLGP), and College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP).
Towards the end of the Q&A session with staff at the town hall meeting, Professor Brown dismissed calls for Julie Bishop’s resignation as ANU Chancellor, insisting she has “no aspirations [or] intentions to change the existing leadership team. The university leadership group is over 70 members of our staff”.
Many of the interim Vice-Chancellor’s answers were met with applause from the audience, but this one was received with near silence.
Photography by Luke Stephenson (ABC News)
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