The scandal-plagued university offering students up to $5000 to enrol

The Australian National University is offering cash handouts of up to $5000 for students to enrol in a single subject to shore up flagging demand after 18 months of scandals, headlines and resignations eroded its once-stellar reputation.

In an Australian first, ANU last week sent letters to people who had applied to study in semester 1 but had either been rejected or had chosen not to take up their place. The letter contained information on a new “ANU Access and Transition Bursary” for previous applicants if they enrolled in a single subject for semester 2, which starts on July 21.

People who live more than 100 kilometres from the ANU campus in Canberra are eligible for $5000, while those who live closer will be paid $3000.

Students do not have to put in a fresh application and must still be enrolled on August 31, after which the money will automatically be transferred.

“We would like to invite you to consider commencing at ANU in Semester 2, 2026,” the letter reads. “ANU is committed to helping you find the right program pathway aligned to your interests and your ANU selection rank.”

One student who received the letter said they had applied to study music, but the ongoing turmoil at the university, especially concerning the music program, persuaded them not to risk it.

“I was concerned that if I enrolled, halfway through my course it would change,” said the student, who asked not to be identified. The student, 18, who lives in Canberra, subsequently enrolled at the University of Canberra. Several of their friends also received the letter.

The letter contends that recipients were “not eligible for an offer” for the course they applied for in semester 1. The Herald is aware of letters that were sent to applicants who were accepted for semester 1 but rejected their offer and chose to go elsewhere.

Higher education policy expert Andrew Norton from Monash University said the move “reeked of desperation”.

“ANU was over-enrolled in 2024, and for it now to be making such offers is very unusual. I’m speechless,” Norton said.

While it is not unusual for universities to offer similar bursaries or scholarships to attract students with very high ATARs or from equity backgrounds, it was unprecedented that a university would cast such a broad net, he said.

“I guess they are hoping they can generate more money than it costs,” Norton said.

ANU declined to respond to questions about the bursary. The institution’s reputation has been shattered over the past 18 months as fallout from the mismanagement and shoddy governance of a massive $250 million cost-cutting exercise sent shock waves through the institution and community.

Former vice chancellor Genevieve Bell resigned last September, while chancellor Julie Bishop and five council members resigned in late April and early May. It is now being run by an interim vice chancellor, Rebekah Brown, and an interim-interim chancellor, Andrew Metcalfe, after Bishop’s replacement, Larry Marshall, took four weeks’ leave as the crisis crescendoed.

Lachlan Clohesy, ACT division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, said ANU had “sustained a lot of self-inflicted reputational damage” which had kept the university in the headlines for “all the wrong reasons”.

“It’s hard to put a dollar figure on the reputational damage, but it would have to be in the tens of millions of dollars,” Clohesy said.

“That’s lost enrolments but also negative impacts on fundraising and philanthropy. The cost of PR consultants who have been given the task of salvaging what is left of ANU’s once-glowing reputation would need to be factored in too.”

Norton said the financial incentives were legal, but controversial. The relevant legislation stipulates a higher education provider “must not offer or provide a benefit [that] would be reasonably likely to induce a person” to enrol in a course of study.

However, that rule does not apply if the offer is for a bursary or scholarship. “It is legal because the way they framed it, but it does look [like] an inducement to enrol,” Norton said.

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