By Natassia Chrysanthos

Copyright theage

Turmoil at the Australian National University led its vice chancellor to resign this month, with a key staff concern being that she had an undisclosed paid position at global tech firm Intel while running the university. ANU chancellor Julie Bishop has also come under pressure, spending $150,000 on international trips in 2024 while the university cut jobs and restructured because of a significant deficit.

Education Minister Jason Clare said he would discuss the report, as well as advice from his expert council on university governance, at a meeting of education ministers next month. “Anyone who doesn’t think there are challenges with university governance has been living under a rock,” he said.

Labor senator Tony Sheldon, who established the inquiry, said it had heard sharply different evidence from management than it had from students and staff.

“University executives claimed that existing governance systems were largely sufficient … Staff, students, academics, and other stakeholders painted a very different picture of structural chaos,” he said.