VC's update - governance

Hi everyone,

As is true most weeks now, there has been a lot happening. In the world beyond our walls and shores, and here at ANU. I was lucky enough to attend the Press Club last week and hear the Treasurer speak and he reflected on the ways that Australia is in a different kind of moment – one characterised by persistent change, rather than long periods of steady-state. He talked about how institutions and citizens alike might need to orient differently to that kind of world – one that has more change and more instablity. He made clear that, in such a world, resilience was both an important personal attribute but also increasingly a feature of our systems and even our economy. I think about that for us here at the ANU; both for each of us as individuals and for our organisation. And I know that building a robust, resilient organisation takes time and effort.

As an organisation, we have done a lot of work over the last 18 months; some of it about financial sustainability, but a lot around addressing internal processes including reviewing, refreshing and retiring policies, procedures, guidelines, and MoUs. Much of this work falls under the banner of governance and lots of people have been talking about governance in the higher education sector, and whether or not, we have good governance. Our University has strong governance practices in place, and we continually review and assess what we are doing and if we still have the right settings in place. As the context around us changes, we should see ourselves in an ecosystem, not operating in isolation.

And so for me, the simplest explanation is just that governance is the systems, processes and practices by which an organisation manages itself. Of course, the next click down means that governance can include everything from organisational structures to decision making processes, policy libraries, accountability frameworks, risk culture and information sharing. And we have all of those things, and they are reviewed regularly and robustly.

Earlier this year, we made to several government inquiries into governance in the higher education sector and it was really helpful to take a step back and look at all the different ways 91ÊÓƵis governed – the ways we govern ourselves and the ways we fit into broader governance structures of others.

As a Corporate Commonwealth Entity, we have reporting requirements that are unique and distinctive. And our Council is responsible for ensuring we are compliant. This includes the annual Council Governance Conformance Statement, which was noted in our February 2025 , where Council confirmed they are satisfied that the University has met our obligations under the PGPA Act.

Our is endorsed by Council each year and includes our audited financial statements which include the signed opinion of the Delegate of the Auditor-General. The Report is tabled in Parliament and made available publicly through our website. The 2024 Report is still be tabled, but I’ll provide an update once I have one.

The which documents our key activities and Key Performance Indicators is also endorsed by Council annually. As outlined in our legislative framework, the University is focused on two strategic objectives that will fulfill our unique purpose as Australia’s first and only national university:

1. Providing a distinctive transformative research and investment in future capability and capacity to meet our national responsibilities; and
2. Educating for Australia’s future: delivering on our students’ aspiration and capability by using the power of education to unlock potential.

Both of these reports are requirements of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, and I encourage you to review them to understand our strategic priorities and our legislative framework.

I know that each of us will have questions about how we can individually support the University to remain compliant. And these range from small things, such as ensuring we have updated our emergency contacts in HORUS to ensuring we understand and discharge our responsibilities in line with the Delegations framework.

Over the coming weeks, we will continue to provide information on governance at the University and how it applies to the institution as a whole and to all of us as individuals. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about governance, we have a range of available.

Good thoughts to where this may find you,
G