UPDATE: FIRST FINDINGS REPORT PUBLISHED

We are delighted to report that since our launch on 6 August 2025, over 200 hundred ANU staff, students, and stakeholders have participated in this project. Ahead of the start of hearings into the Senate Inquiry into Quality of Governance in Higher Education Providers, we are publicly sharing first findings from these participants. 

These results are preliminary and will be updated at regular intervals. Please be aware that we are publishing only selected qualitative feedback at this stage - it is our summary of the most common themes emerging from the survey and kitchen table conversations.  Ahead of the project workshop, we will share all quantitative and qualitative input shared by ANU community participants (we will moderate to exclude obviously irrelevant content or to remove content that could identify participants). You can access the latest results on our Community Views page. 

The First Findings Report is based on the first 209 survey responses, and the first two kitchen table conversations. A majority of survey respondents (75.1%) were current staff followed by former staff (12%) and students (8.6%), alumni, and stakeholders including parents of ANU students and donors. 

Major Findings include:

The ANU community - staff, students, alumni, and stakeholders - are deeply dissatisfied with current governance arrangements and believe it requires an overhaul. 

  1. Over 97% of survey respondents and all kitchen table conversation participants believe current ANU governance is not fit for purpose and should be reformed. 
  2. Over 91% of survey respondents and all kitchen table conversation participants expressed dissatisfaction with current ANU governance, including 56% who said they were ‘completely unsatisfied’

The ANU is suffering from a significant deficit of trust in their current practices of transparency and accountability 

  1. Over 94% of survey respondents said they were dissatisfied with ANU’s current practices of transparency, including over 72% who said they were ‘completely unsatisfied’.
  2. Over 92% of survey respondents said they were dissatisfied with ANU’s accountability frameworks, including over 67% who said they were ‘completely unsatisfied’.

The ANU community has genuine and credible reform recommendations and must be consulted in governance reform of their own university (and can inform reform of the higher education sector more generally)

Key recommendations include:

  1. Increase academic voice to restore balance between educational and corporate governance principles (more academic presence on key governance bodies).
  2. Strengthen academic oversight processes of ANU Council and other key decision making bodies through increased transparency and improved corporate practices.
  3. Increased accountability via improved feedback and evaluation mechanisms particular for senior university managers
  4. Set principle-based salaries for senior university executives

Read the full report here.