By Sarah McCrea
Last week’s On Campus newsletter revealed to staff and students the opportunity to observe the first ANU Council meeting of the year. ANU community members could register to view the meeting via Zoom. The section available to the public coincided with the busiest day of the year for students, running from 9am to just after 10am on Wednesday 18 February. Despite coinciding with Market Day, the meeting was heavily attended. The university announced that this would be a feature for all future Council meetings.
The ANU Governance Project called the open session “a substantial improvement in transparency, and one of many steps that are needed to improve governance at the ANU”.
The open session covered the reports of the Chancellor, Interim Vice-Chancellor, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Chair of the Academic Board.
Chancellor’s Report
ANU Chancellor, Julie Bishop, began the open session. She discussed the graduation ceremonies that occurred earlier in the month and the O-Week activities, as well as revealing University House will be formally re-opened on 1 August. One of the iconic buildings of ANU campus, University House has been closed since 2020 following extensive damage from a hailstorm. Bishop also revealed that Tuesday 17 February had been a strategic planning day for the Council, with The ANU Governance Project and Go8 both providing input. An afternoon session focused on the strategic plan, which is set to be open to consultation with the community next month. The Chancellor confirmed ANU has a stable outlook for credit review.
Interim Vice-Chancellor’s Report
Interim-Vice Chancellor Rebekah Brown began by updating the Council on senior leadership positions. Multiple searches are on the way for permanent staff members for senior leadership positions, as current individuals holding those roles are only acting, or Interim. For example, the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching). Some of these searches are internal, and some are external, including the role of Provost and Senior Vice-President, both of which are currently being filled by Professor Brown.
Brown stated she wanted to engage further on strategy and a ‘co-design process’ for the next university strategy, to be developed in March. She also revealed that the 2027 Budget would be passed through the Council in the Wednesday meeting, with the premise of revenue meeting expenses.
The ANU’s global rankings were another topic of discussion. Brown stressed the importance of ANU’s ‘talent density’ and ‘disciplinary strength’ as something “we can address”. With the size of the university key to financial management, attracting students was mentioned as a key strategy to strengthening student experience and strength.
Regulations, reviews, and criticism – the parts of governance no Council wants to address – were discussed in the Interim Vice-Chancellor’s report. Late last year, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission was established, an “an independent steward for the higher education system, tasked with creating a better and fairer tertiary education system”. It was considered how changes such as this would change the tertiary education environment.
Further, Brown revealed reviews into ANU were “approaching completion”, including work from the audit office. Psychological risk findings, including Pulse survey results, were acknowledged as concerning and demonstrated as showing a need for focus on communication and rebuilding trust. Brown admitted a need for accountability. It was also disclosed that the Strategic plan will be launched on ANU’s 80th anniversary in August.
Chief Financial Officer’s Report
Michael Lonergan, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) stated that the ANU had a provisional actual net operation deficit of $45 million. Salary and non-salary costs were “both favourable to budget”.
Chair of the Academic Board’s Report
Professor Anthony Connolly, Chair of the Academic Board, delivered his report based on the discussions of the Academic Board at their meeting in November 2025. He listed the topics raised, including increases in appeals and complaints by staff, concerns about international rankings, and student disciplinary processes. Connolly discussed the reviews into Council and concerns on how the ANU strategic plan will intersect with governance issues, as well as the roles of stakeholders in ANU specific and sector-wide concerns in governance.
Bringing up racism and antisemitism, he referred to the Council about a request from early 2025. The previous Vice-Chancellor had committed to reviewing policies and procedures based on a definition of antisemitism, this review including academic freedom and freedom of speech. This had been endorsed by the Council, but Connolly stated this had not been progressing by a “significant extent.”
Following Connolly’s report, the open session ended, with the Council stating they would be going to Market Day before returning to the meeting in the afternoon, where the ANU 2027 Budget would be discussed.
Graphics by Shé Chani
Know something we don’t know? Email news@anuobserver.org or use our anonymous tip submission.
If you have an issue with this article, or a correction to make, you can contact us at news@anuobserver.org, submit a formal dispute, or angry react the Facebook post.
If you don’t have an issue with this article and want to hear more from us, we’re in the process of making a newsletter! Sign up here, and have the latest news delivered directly to you.
Want to get involved? You can write articles, photograph, livestream or do web support. We’re also looking for someone to yell “extra!” outside Davey Lodge at 1AM. Apply today!
ANU Observer 