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🇦🇺 Australia /Culture & Society

University Regulator Finds ANU Breached National Standards

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Australia’s higher education regulator found that the Australian National University failed to meet three governance-related standards.
  • TEQSA imposed four conditions covering governance, university integrity, council training and information flows, including a requirement to appoint an independent expert within 30 days.
  • The action follows years of leadership turmoil, a $250 million cost-cutting program and departures by former vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell and former chancellor Julie Bishop.

The Australian National University will have to strengthen its governance under four conditions imposed by the national higher education regulator after a 14-month review.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency said the university failed to meet three key standards. The shortcomings involved competent governance oversight and accountability, diligent attention to governance functions, and effective and sustainable operations.

determined, realistic performance targets

· Tertiary Education Quality and Standards AgencyTEQSA cited the absence of these targets among ANU's governance shortcomings.

TEQSA also criticized the university's future planning, saying it lacked “determined, realistic performance targets”, action to “correct underperformance” and effective risk management. Within 30 days, ANU must appoint a TEQSA-approved independent expert to lead a Governance and Council Strengthening Program with the university and its council. The program must address financial sustainability, academic matters, risk management and strategic direction.

correct underperformance

· Tertiary Education Quality and Standards AgencyTEQSA said ANU lacked effective actions to address poor performance.

Some of the conditions will end after three years, although TEQSA can extend them. The regulator began intervening at ANU in June last year, during a $250 million cost-cutting program that triggered staff and student protests and damaged the university's reputation.

Former vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell left in September last year, followed by former chancellor Julie Bishop in May. Several council members resigned after Bishop's departure, supporting her claim that TEQSA's “continued and increasingly contemptuous intervention in council matters” had constrained her ability to perform her role.

continued and increasingly contemptuous intervention in council matters

· Julie BishopBishop used the phrase when arguing that TEQSA's involvement had constrained her work as chancellor.

The National Tertiary Education Union welcomed the regulator's action. ACT secretary Lachlan Clohesy said the conditions largely reflected “governance failures of the Bishop-Bell regime” and argued that ANU now had the dubious distinction of being the only public university in Australia with conditions on its registration. He said some people would describe the intervention as regulatory overreach, but that few addressed the governance failures that prompted it.

governance failures of the Bishop-Bell regime

· Lachlan ClohesyThe union official attributed much of the regulatory action to prior leadership failures.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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