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Two years ago, the Australian Catholic University was the Cinderella story of global research.<\/p>\n
For a time, ACU had produced so little it was at risk of losing its university accreditation. But in just a few years, ACU rocketed up world rankings, becoming a powerhouse of humanities scholarship \u2013 and recorded a healthy $55 million surplus when vice-chancellor Greg Craven left in 2021.<\/p>\n
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Some affected ACU staff (left to right) philosophy professor Gillian Russell, political science research fellow Kyle Peyton, director of Dianoia Institute of Philosophy professor Stephen Finlay, director of medieval and early modern studies research program Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch and director of political science research Professor Paul Kenny.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Penny Stephens<\/cite><\/p>\n Now, ACU is struggling with a deficit of more than $30 million, including a forecast blow-out of this year\u2019s travel and entertainment budget. Last week, ACU stunned staff by announcing it would close two world-leading research departments and axe more than 30 academic jobs, including in its signature theology studies.<\/p>\n The proposed cuts drew condemnation from world experts who say they strike at the heart of both global humanities research and the ACU\u2019s standing as a top Catholic university.<\/p>\n Many of the academics facing redundancy are leaders in their field who were headhunted by the university and left positions at Oxford, Cambridge and Yale to move their families to Australia.<\/p>\n The university says staff costs are \u201cone of the most significant areas of expenditure\u201d, as it weathers a dip in student enrolment numbers, and its governing board has instructed it to balance the budget by 2024. But the union argues mismanagement led to ACU\u2019s financial black hole, and that staff cuts won\u2019t fix the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cSpending on research is still well below most universities,\u201d said Stephen Finlay, head of the ACU\u2019s prestigious Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, which is set to close. \u201cWe institute directors weren\u2019t even told, and allowed to make our case. It was an ambush.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy Williamson of Oxford and Yale, one of the world\u2019s top living philosophers, said ACU\u2019s meteoric rise to the pinnacle of global philosophy research was unprecedented but if the cuts went ahead it would earn the institution a new reputation \u201cas a Mickey Mouse university … damaging the good international standing of the Australian university system as a whole\u201d.<\/p>\n Dr Juhani Yli-Vakkuri, took a demotion to come to ACU on the promise Dianoia would become the leading philosophy research hub in the southern hemisphere. Philosopher Gillian Russell, who left her distinguished tenured professorship in the US for Dianoia, said: \u201cI feel like ACU tricked me into leaving a job I loved.\u201d<\/p>\n Postgraduate students could be left high and dry too without supervisors to finish their research, said political scientist Kyle Peyton, who joined ACU from Yale. \u201cAustralia\u2019s home now. It\u2019s devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n Peyton and Russell only recently moved their families to Melbourne and now face an uncertain future.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Penny Stephens<\/cite><\/p>\n Philosophy PhD candidate Jess Pohlamann said students came for \u201cthese superstars ACU brought in, not ACU\u2019s reputation\u201d. The cuts at ACU, which has campuses across Australia, follow more than 70 staff cuts earlier this year and more flagged to professional staff in the coming weeks. <\/p>\n An ACU spokesperson said it was not yet known how much job cuts would save the budget but stressed \u201creductions in non-salary were among the first things targeted\u201d for cuts, with \u201cprojected significant cuts in travel and consulting\u201d too.<\/p>\n President of the National Tertiary Education Union\u2019s ACU branch, Leah Kaufmann, said: \u201cThe 150-odd jobs they\u2019ve told us they\u2019re cutting this year will just limit what we can do as a university and add expensive redundancies on top. Where will that leave workloads \u2013 and students?\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Paul Kenny, who \u201cuprooted [his] family\u201d in 2020 to build ACU\u2019s political science research program, said: \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any justification, any data, explaining these cuts. We know it\u2019s not about performance. \u201d<\/p>\n Despite the pandemic, ACU\u2019s revenue has remained steady at around $550 million. But, internal figures reveal spending on things such as offshore administration, advertising, travel and entertainment, are forecast to blow their budgets by millions this year.<\/p>\n The university has also spent tens of millions of dollars on new projects such as digital-only courses via ACU Online as well as a veterans\u2019 pathways program.<\/p>\n Three sources with close knowledge of the university\u2019s finances but not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed that after former vice-chancellor Craven introduced sweeping research reforms, the budget for research returned surpluses.<\/p>\n Wayne McKenna, the former deputy vice-chancellor of research who led that overhaul, said those multi-million dollar surpluses were budgeted to continue, even with extra scholarships planned. \u201cYou always plan for a crisis in research, and we budgeted out to 2027,\u201d he said. \u201cResearch can\u2019t be behind this sudden deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch heads ACU\u2019s medieval studies program which is now set to fold, and said the executive did not appear to know what her research group did when they announced the cuts. \u201cNow we\u2019re left to fight it out for what few positions are left in a Hunger Games<\/em> situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Global experts in philosophy, theology and medieval studies from Oxford to Yale have been writing to the university and the Australian government objecting to the cuts.<\/p>\n Philosophy professor John Hawthorne, who previously held posts at Oxford and Princeton and was instrumental in creating Dianoia at ACU in 2019, said humanities research helped take ACU \u201cfrom nowhere\u201d \u2013 unranked in 2016 \u2013 to among the top 300 universities in the world today, and the top 17 in Australia. <\/p>\n Garrett Cullity, the head of philosophy at the Australian National University, said his own faculty\u2019s analysis had found that rival ACU\u2019s Dianoia ranked number one for research output in philosophy \u2013 ahead of the likes of Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard \u2013 which have many more philosophers on staff and long reputations in the field.<\/p>\n Humanities researchers at ACU say they are being targeted by the cuts, which will also impact postgrad students.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Penny Stephens<\/cite><\/p>\n ACU rejected concern that the university was turning its back on humanities research as \u201chyperbole\u201d, maintaining that it had not stopped teaching or research in these fields.<\/p>\n The previous research strategy \u201cwas set up in a different era … before COVID and the full impact of ACU\u2019s stagnant revenue and raising costs,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cThis model was undertaken to establish ACU as a research-active university [but] the sector is increasingly moving towards a broader perspective of research and we need to adjust to this.\u201d<\/p>\n The new plan, which also affects health and education research to a smaller extent, acknowledges that ACU\u2019s international rankings might fall. McKenna and others warn that could have consequences for the university\u2019s accreditation too. \u201cThe saying goes: \u2018it\u2019s hard to climb the pole but easy to slide down it\u2019,\u201d said McKenna.<\/p>\n The university said its rankings would recover \u201cstronger and more sustainable\u201d. ACU has told staff the restructure is also designed to \u201crebalance\u201d research and spread it more fairly beyond specialised institutes set up by Craven, back to academics who teach in the faculties.<\/p>\n McKenna said it was heartbreaking to see top experts he convinced to join ACU let go. \u201cI never thought this would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Dmitri Gallow had been offered tenure to stay at a prestigious philosophy program in the US, but instead moved to help ACU build \u201csomething visionary\u201d at Dianoia. \u201cI haven\u2019t even finished unpacking yet.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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