{"id":717035,"date":"2026-06-05T13:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717035\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:47:10","slug":"anu-scandals-during-julie-bishops-tenure-caused-100m-in-reputational-damage-university-estimates-australian-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717035\/","title":{"rendered":"ANU scandals during Julie Bishop\u2019s tenure caused $100m in reputational damage, university estimates | Australian universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

A series of high profile scandals<\/a> and governance failures has cost the Australian National University $100m in reputational damage, the interim vice-chancellor, Rebekah Brown, has told a parliamentary committee.<\/p>\n

Fronting senate estimates on Friday \u2013 a day after a scathing audit report found the ANU approved a controversial $250m cost-cutting program without clear evidence \u2013 Brown acknowledged it had been a challenging time for the university.<\/p>\n

Brown said the financial loss was primarily due to the reputational effect on the ANU\u2019s donor pipeline and the recruitment of international students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very significant, and we are still modelling the impact, the impact is still live,\u201d Brown told the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur modelling from the end of last year \u2026 it\u2019s in the order of $100m.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The university has been plagued by scandals in recent years into the university\u2019s culture, poor financial management, as well as accusations of bullying<\/a> against former chancellor Julie Bishop<\/a> made at a senate inquiry. Bishop has previously said<\/a> she rejected \u201ceach and every allegation\u201d against her.<\/p>\n

The cost-cutting program, dubbed Renew ANU, led to the resignation of former vice-chancellor, Genevieve Bell in September<\/a>. In the 12 months prior to September, Renew had resulted in at least 399 redundancies.<\/p>\n

Bishop, who became chancellor in 2020, resigned in May, ahead of her term as chancellor expiring at the end of the year. The university\u2019s council has also seen five of its 15 members resign from their positions this year.<\/p>\n

The selection of Bishop\u2019s replacement has been largely taken out of the ANU council\u2019s hands, through intervention by the regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. The council agreed to a voluntary undertaking, which will see a majority independent panel make a recommendation to the council for the next chancellor.<\/p>\n

The acting chancellor, and former government department secretary, Andrew Metcalfe, said he acknowledged the loss of confidence in the university by the public, its staff and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to acknowledge plainly that confidence in the governance of the ANU is seriously damaged in the last few years, staff and students have felt hurt, disillusioned and not valued, trust has been lost and the council has a duty to confront that directly,\u201d Metcalfe told estimates.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) released a scathing review of the Renew ANU, which it said was approved with no clear evidence it was needed, urgent or achievable.<\/p>\n

The report found Renew cost more than $35m to implement and achieved an ongoing annual saving of $74.8m, and warned revenue and people risks remain. <\/p>\n

Independent senator for the ACT, David Pocock, called the report a tough read, and said it justified the community\u2019s outrage at the \u201cmanufactured financial crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ANAO\u2019s report highlights a swathe of failings, finding that Renew ANU was approved without a clear understanding of the problem, the options available, or the implementation risks,\u201d Pocock said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A series of high profile scandals and governance failures has cost the Australian National University $100m in reputational…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-717035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}