ANU cops $225 million financial hit due to coronavirus crisis

The Australian National University has revealed it has suffered a $225 million financial hit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt said this year the ANU would earn $150 million less than expected, and spend $75 million more than planned, as a result of the health crisis.

"We've deferred capital projects where we sensibly can, and we have saved significantly due to reductions in travel," he said.

"With the support of our council, we are borrowing money to help prudently spread some of our current costs into the future.

"But even after all of this, we need to find an additional $100 million in savings this year. We also need to be able to operate with at least $150 million less money next year, and we can expect ongoing savings of this magnitude are likely in 2022 and beyond."

ANU senior management has agreed to take a 10 per cent pay cut for the second half of 2020 and the vice-chancellor himself will take a 20 per cent pay cut over this time.

Professor Schmidt said the 2 per cent pay rise for staff scheduled for July could also be deferred, by agreement with the staff.

"That is a considerable new expense going forward. In the end these are decisions we have to make as a community."

Each department of the university will be asked to make savings. Professor Schmidt said some small classes could be deferred and new activities could be put off to save money. Some staff members could also be asked to bring forward their retirement.

It comes as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) scrapped its framework deal that would have led to 15 per cent temporary pay cuts for university staff in order to minimise job losses.

READ MORE:

• ANU cutting costs as massive coronavirus hit looms
• NTEU's job protection plan met with praise, anger from UC, ANU staff
• Canberra universities reveal reopening plans

The union's ANU branch president Matthew King said the university's announcement came as a surprise to members and demonstrated a "deeper state of malaise in the organisation."

"We are waiting with enormous interest for a lot more detail and we're very open with talking with them," Mr King said.

"We're most concerned about our casual cohort who are in very uncertain times and in very unprotected jobs followed by what kind of cuts may happen to our tendered staff."

Mr King said there would be "great concern" among staff if they were pressured into giving up their July pay increase, particularly if there was nothing offered in return in terms of job security.

"There would be a lot of very angry staff if our pay got deferred."

Professor Schmidt said the university would not be able to take as many students in coming semesters due to travel bans, and this would have financial implications for years to come.

He said a "good fraction" of ANU's drop in revenue came from the loss of international student fees, but it was also from a variety of other sources. In 2018, international student fees accounted for $320 million of the university's revenue.

The vice-chancellor previously rejected claims that the institution was overly reliant on international students, and said it was in a relatively good financial situation going into the pandemic.

"One of the reasons why I think our situation was a strong as it was was because we have been very careful in spending money as it comes in and we have not grown quickly," he said.

He said the ANU would be focusing on core activities, which meant taking fewer risks.

"It's a little disappointing but we're all in this together," he said.