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The Australian National University (ANU) has ruled a line under its campaign of forced retrenchments, claiming an ¡°important milestone¡± in its quest to shear A$100 million (?48 million) from its salary bill.

The Canberra institution says all future changes under its contentious restructure programme, ¡°Renew ANU¡±, will be ¡°achieved without involuntary redundancies¡±.

Its?commitment does not include around 140 jobs proposed for removal over the past few months, although this tally could be reduced following consultations with staff.

The university has also ruled out any further restructure announcements this year, although a second ¡°voluntary separation scheme¡± will be unveiled in late August.

In a statement, ANU said it had achieved 60 per cent of its salary savings target and further savings were expected from proposed restructures of six operational areas ¨C academic, research and innovation, residential experience, campus environment, the College of Science and Medicine and the College of Arts and Social Sciences. The university is consulting staff from these areas after unveiling planned changes in July and August.

¡°We still need to keep reshaping our organisation and reducing our salary costs, but we¡¯ll do this in other ways such as voluntary separations, recruitment controls and natural attrition,¡± the university said.

Vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell said the ¡°challenging period of change¡± had ¡°raised questions about who we are, what we do and how we deliver our national mission.

¡°We have farewelled good colleagues and¡­had to have hard conversations [that] tested our values about respect and collegial dialogue.¡±

The firestorm endured by the university in recent months has included allegations of bullying in the governing council, a formal probe by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) and of the chancellor and vice-chancellor. An Australian Capital Territory (ACT) senator has ordered the release of a sheath of internal documents, while academics elsewhere have called for ANU¡¯s unique National Institutes Grant to be .

ANU said the restructure programme had so far claimed about 222 staff, around two-thirds of whom had taken voluntary redundancy.

The National Tertiary Education Union said the ANU workforce had declined by about 1,000 since April 2024, with over 100 more currently facing retrenchment. ¡°This announcement gives no comfort to those facing the axe,¡± said ACT division secretary Lachlan Clohesy.

¡°Previous announcements have indicated that more change proposals may come in 2026. We¡¯re calling on the vice-chancellor to confirm that there will be no forced redundancies in 2026, whether ANU leadership considers them part of ¡®Renew ANU¡¯ or not.¡±

Branch president Millan Pintos-Lopez said Bell should ¡°pause¡± all job cuts while staff considered the new offer of voluntary redundancies.

¡°It is ludicrous to continue down this path when new student caps aren¡¯t factored into¡­financial forecasts, a Teqsa investigation is under way and the outcome of the second round of voluntary separations is not yet known.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com