But the $160m operating loss is better than expected

Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt tells staff the final figure was $56m better than first anticipated, mainly due to $22m more in student income and $27m in research grants.

The headline deficit is $17m – but this includes insurance pay-outs for natural disaster damage and income from specific-purpose endowments and investments which fund superannuation.

“The sacrifices you have all made in the past year have gone a long way towards reducing our deficit and future-proofing the university from further financial shocks,” Professor Schmidt says.   He adds that ANU “does not anticipate any more job losses” than the 467 already announce.

Good but still not great. Supporting data to the announcement states the university expects to be in deficit to 2023.  In September – a $192m deficit for 2021, with losses of “a similar magnitude” in ’22 and ’23, was expected (CMM September 17).

Professional staff have taken the employment hit. Academic staff declined from 1782 to 1755 between December 2019 and 2020 while professional staff numbers fell from 2670 to 2454. These numbers are EFTs which means the actual number of individuals who lost jobs is not identified. However, year on year casual staff salaries were $9m down.