In late 2025, the Australian National University (ANU) found itself in the spotlight for reasons less flattering than its academic reputation. After only two years at the helm, Professor Genevieve Bell resigned as Vice Chancellor. There were months of speculation, debate, and even criticism.
Australian Federal Government Minister Speech
INSIGHTS & RESOURCES
Australian Federal Government Minister Speech
Australian Financial Review’s Higher Education Summit 2017 Address
MINISTER SPEECH by Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training
30 August 2017
“……..This conference has already been exploring concepts on how to modernise universities to deliver greater benefits for students and realise desperately needed efficiencies. Former vice chancellor Steven Schwartz ….. has belled the cat on outdated teaching methods, the way capital could be better used to support investment and the excessive shift in head count from teaching to administration. Former ANU Professor Keith Houghton has released research revealing significant scope for enhanced productivity and potential savings across many Australian universities who have, in many respects, been perhaps resting on their laurels with easy taxpayer funding flowing into their coffers……….”
Australia has, on average, some of the largest universities in the English-speaking world. Some might speculate that this is an idiosyncratic outcome of the Australian education funding approach. While this is possible, even likely, the effect of global ranking algorithms may also factor into this. Those who have attempted to reverse engineer the three or four largest rankings appear to recognise that controlling for scale is a near-impossible task.
Earlier this year, the Higher Education and Research Group released its latest annual analysis of the productivity of the Australian university sector, including, for the first time, the three large private universities.