The national tertiary education regulator is looking into governance concerns raised about the ANU. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Updated to include ANU response.
The national regulator has been called in to investigate the Australian National University’s compliance with policies covering the higher education sector.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare referred the university to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) off the back of community concerns about governance issues at the ANU and campaigning by independent ACT Senator David Pocock.
His office met with Mr Clare’s on 26 May outlining three concerns, and followed up with a letter on Monday (16 June).
Two concerns related to potential breaches of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013.
Region understands the third issue is sensitive in nature.
This letter was then sent to TEQSA.
Mr Pocock shed some light on his concerns during a recent town hall meeting in Canberra.
“I [have] raised concerns about the ANU leadership misleading the Senate around values of contracts, and what has or hasn’t been happening,” he said.
“There’s been a number of corrections … the ANU has had to give to the Senate, where they’ve given information to the Senate that either wasn’t complete or did seem to be wrong or misleading.
“From this we know that the ANU has spent, not the $50,000 I was told, not the $750,000 that they told Senator [Tony] Sheldon, but I think it’s over $3 million now, that we know of, on consultants.”
Senate procedural rules prevented Mr Pocock from expanding on this further.
When asked whether he had confidence in the ANU’s leadership, Mr Pocock was frank.
“Based on what I’ve seen, no. Based on what I’ve heard, no,” he said.
“I really have tried to engage in good faith on this … I don’t say this lightly, but nothing I’ve seen suggests that the current leadership are up to the task.”
A regulator spokesperson said the Federal Education Minister could share concerns related to “provider compliance”.
“TEQSA is engaged in live compliance processes in relation to concerns at the Australian National University,” they said.
“TEQSA gives consideration to all concerns received, including those from the Minister, and where warranted, outcomes can include undertaking regulatory processes to assure provider compliance.
“As this is ongoing, it is not appropriate for TEQSA to comment further until these processes are concluded.”
Mr Clare confirmed he’d passed on Mr Pocock’s letter and had previously contacted the ANU on 6 June.
“Following significant concerns raised by my Labor colleagues from the ACT and the broader community, I wrote to ANU seeking assurances that they are managing these issues appropriately,” he said.
The ANU has been restructuring colleges and staff positions in an effort to reduce its recurrent spending by $250 million by 2026. Photo: NTEU.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) ACT division secretary Dr Lachlan Clohesy said the minister’s intervention showed the Commonwealth was intent on “cleaning up university governance”.
“It is difficult to see how the continuation of the current ANU leadership is tenable,” he said.
“Every day they remain in place further damages our national university and its people.”
National president Dr Alison Barnes said the “unprecedented ministerial intervention” also showed new federal and state-level legislation was urgently needed to fix the “disgraceful governance crisis” across the higher education sector.
“This is a watershed moment … unfortunately, the problems at ANU are being replicated across the country,” she said.
“We’re seeing egregious conflicts of interests, eye-watering amounts of wage theft, a hiring-firing yo-yo, and zero transparency for leadership decisions that cripple universities.”
She said governance reform needed to make university bosses accountable for the “incredible damage” they were doing to staff, students and the institutions.
“This must mark the end of vice-chancellors pocketing a million dollars a year and acting with impunity as they destroy student experience and slash jobs,” Dr Barnes said.
“We need national laws that pull these rogue university executives into line so we can provide world-class research and education.”
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell wrote to staff late Friday (20 June) afternoon stating no allegations that the university had breached two pieces of legislation had been made to the institution.
“Neither had we been aware, until reading the media reporting, of any such complaints made to either our Minister or to the Commonwealth Ombudsman,” she said.
“We are particularly disheartened to hear a public assertion that we have breached our obligations under the [Public Interest Disclosure] Act. This is something that the University and the team involved take extremely seriously, not least because a breach of that Act can attract significant penalties, including imprisonment.
“Ensuring disclosures are properly made requires that our community feels safe to do so, and unfortunately efforts to build that sense of safety may have been significantly undermined by these statements.”
Prof Bell has sent Mr Pocock a letter seeking clarity on the issues he’d raised, and to Mr Clare stating the ANU wasn’t aware of any breaches.
An inquiry into university governance was held in January, which is developing new governance principles and recommendations with the aim to enhance accountability, transparency, engagement and representation of university governing bodies, and the make-up of university boards.
Its recommendations are due in October.
Mr Pocock has called on the inquiry to hold further hearings.
