The vice-chancellor of the Australian Nationwide College (ANU) has tendered her resignation after a tumultuous two years on the establishment, marked by redundancies, proposed course closures, and allegations of a poisonous work tradition.
Chancellor Julie Bishop confirmed Prof Genevieve Bell had resigned on Thursday morning. A number of sources mentioned Bell suggested the council of her resolution on Wednesday night, with Provost Rebekah Brown to be interim vice chancellor till a substitute is discovered.
Bell mentioned she would return to ANU’s Faculty of Cybernetics as a distinguished professor after taking a interval of research go away, including it was “not a straightforward resolution” to make and being the college’s thirteenth vice-chancellor had been an “extraordinary privilege and in addition a heavy duty”.
“I consider firmly in our delivering on our nationwide mission … and know that doing this requires a stable monetary, cultural and operational basis,” she mentioned within the Thursday assertion.
“Attaining such a basis has been tough and this has been a really onerous time for our group … I very a lot need to see the ANU thrive into the longer term and for it to proceed to be a exceptional place and I don’t need to stand in the way in which of that.”
Strain was mounting for Bell to exit after 5 of the six faculty deans suggested the council and chancellor that they now not had confidence in her management, sources confirmed.
Final week, Bishop held a full day of conferences on campus with deans, council members and members of the union, sources instructed Guardian Australia.
She returned to campus on Wednesday to fulfill with members of the ANU governance mission, a bunch of lecturers and workers who shaped this yr amid a rising “disaster of confidence” in management on the college, and once more met with members of the union on Thursday morning.
It adopted the discharge of a scathing report by the governance mission which discovered 96% of round 600 respondents believed ANU’s governance was not match for goal and ought to be reformed.
Bishop mentioned she could be “encouraging council to have interaction in open and constructive dialogue with the group on the proposed suggestions”.
“On behalf of the ANU council, I thank distinguished Prof Bell for her service as vice-chancellor and president.”
ANU’s governance has come underneath elevated scrutiny over a drastic restructure that has led to at the very least 399 redundancies and the proposed disestablishment of the Australian Nationwide Dictionary Centre, the centre for European research, the humanities analysis centre and the ANU Faculty of Music.
Round 100 workers are nonetheless dealing with the axe as a part of the Renew ANU course of, the Nationwide Tertiary Schooling Union (Nteu) estimates.
An investigation into ANU by the The Tertiary Schooling High quality and Requirements Company (Teqsa) is ongoing after “important considerations” had been raised by Jason Clare in a uncommon commonwealth intervention into college governance in June.
ANU has since launched its self belief report and canopy letter for Teqsa, and can undertake its personal investigation into its council and senior management staff after a distinguished educational alleged at a Senate inquiry final month that she was “bullied into close to suicide” whereas serving on ANU’s college council and suffered a miscarriage within the weeks after two distressing conferences with Bishop.
The discover to Teqsa revealed there had been 627 psychosocial danger and hazard reviews logged by workers in 2024 and 337 within the yr up to now.
“I reject any suggestion that I’ve engaged with council members, workers, college students and observers in any manner apart from with respect, courtesy and civility,” Bishop mentioned in August.
“The witness involved has initiated grievance proceedings and it isn’t applicable for me to remark additional right now.”
Impartial senator David Pocock has constantly referred to as for Bell and Bishop to step apart after Renew ANU started 12 months in the past.
“Whereas there’s broad understanding of the necessity to put the ANU on a extra sustainable monetary footing, there have been severe failures of management and governance within the implementation of Renew ANU,” he mentioned.
Pocock mentioned he endorsed the council’s resolution however additional management adjustments had been wanted and any additional pressured redundancies should be stopped till there was “transparency” over ANU’s funds and “real session” with workers.
The Nteu ACT division secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, welcomed the information however mentioned Bell wouldn’t be “the final vice-chancellor to go” if different universities “fail to heed the teachings of what has gone improper”.
“ANU management has taken an method of transferring quick and breaking issues,” he mentioned. “Sadly, too lots of these issues had been folks.”
A grassroots group of lecturers campaigning in opposition to the workers cuts, Our ANU, mentioned the “points on the coronary heart of this disaster transcend the vice chancellor”.
“This has been years within the making, the product of deep governance failures … Solely real accountability will enable ANU to reset and rebuild.”
