At the end of 2024, the Australian National University announced $250 million in cuts as part of a “Renew ANU” program. According to figures published in the Australian Financial Review, this “renewal” includes $150 million slashed from salaries—the equivalent of 638 full-time jobs.
While hundreds of workers are facing the sack, it has since been revealed that new Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell was still taking an undisclosed salary from tech giant Intel well into her first year at ANU—on top of her $1.1 million university pay packet. Also, Canberra MP David Pocock revealed that Bell blew $1.2 million on external consultants to advise on Renew ANU after telling the Senate the university had spent just $50,000.
The fallout has been significant. In an unprecedented move, 800 ANU staff participated in a National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) vote of no confidence in Bell and Chancellor Julie Bishop. An overwhelming 95 percent voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. Bell’s response? To smear the vote as “sexist”.
It’s not just staff pushing back. Students have launched a “No Cuts at ANU” campaign linking staff working conditions to student learning conditions. Forums, rallies and a student strike have been held throughout the first half of 2025. The demands are simple: sack Bell and Bishop, get rid of the Renew ANU project and publicly disclose the university’s financial records.
Bell is one of many university bosses overseeing a national offensive against staff and students. At the University of Canberra, ex-Labor parliamentarian turned Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten has ditched any pretence of supporting workers by axing 150 staff. Western Sydney University is gutting 400 jobs. The University of Wollongong has cut more than 100 subjects and slashed $21 million from salaries. Monash University is cramming more students into bigger tutorials while slashing staff numbers.
These attacks result from a system that treats education as a business and students and staff as cogs in the machine. With the Albanese government cutting funding and capping international student numbers, universities expect greater uncertainty in their profit margins and are making workers and students pay.
A fightback is underway at the ANU, but it is only the beginning. To defend our education, we need to take on not just vice-chancellors like Bell and Shorten, but the whole rotten system that treats our education like a commodity, and universities like businesses.

Lucy Chapman-Kelly

Fighting course cuts at ANU

One of the biggest activist meetings in nearly half a decade was last week held at the University of Melbourne, as students gear up to support staff in the National Tertiary Education Union fighting for better wages and conditions.
Nearly 100 staff and students attended the launch of the Students Support Staff Strikes campaign, which followed <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/unimelb-staff-start-campaign-strike">the largest strike demonstration</a> on the campus in more than a decade. 
The campaign is aiming to mobilise students to support staff actions against university management, which has pocketed <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/inside-australia-s-university-wage-theft-machine-20230411-p5czn6.html">$45 million in stolen wages</a> as of April, according to the union. 
Solidarity from students has been a key source of energy for university strike campaigns across the world recently—something we want to emulate in Melbourne.
For example, Tribune magazine reports that a key demand emanating from <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/03/the-manchester-student-rent-strike-is-solidarity-in-action">a student rent strike at Manchester University in the UK</a> has been for university management to meet the demands of striking staff. Students have also been joining picket lines, occupying buildings, and leading rallies across the UK in support of the University and College Union strikes this year. 
At Melbourne University, we need to be ready for attacks by university managers, who may try to create divisions between students and staff—perhaps by telling students that their education is being undermined by unnecessary staff disruptions.
However, we know that staff working conditions are our learning conditions. 
“Staff aren’t just striking for themselves, we’re striking for students”, Kai Tanter, a tutor and organiser of the Insecure Workers Network at Melbourne University, told Red Flag. 
We all lose out when the university is run for profit, with staff losing out on pay and working conditions while the quality of our education goes down. 
The campaign launch ended with chorus of chants from students and staff, including “When workers are under attack, students stand up and fight back!”
The Melbourne University Students Support the Staff Strikes campaign meets weekly. To find out how to get involved, find us on Facebook or Instagram under “Unimelb Students for Staff Strikes”, or follow this link: <a href="https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2Funimelbstudents4staffstrikes&amp;e=AT1tQmTVukO71d9EtxXXVLp5hmFQbVxsH8VeX0fl9f3iJnSGgYGLj7ZGE8CQch5jTRwq99WPIpX_uMCXdjACAcLTuEmZarwofgp8hw">linktr.ee/unimelbstudents4staffstrikes</a>.

Fighting course cuts at ANU

Melbourne students launch staff solidarity campaign

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