Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 2:02:58 to 2:14:43
ANU representatives are questioned about student accommodation costs, vacancy rates, and the impact of privatization on student equity.
Topics: Education, Procurement
Speakers: Ms Dominique Lowe, Senator David Pocock, Michael Schwager, Speaker 2, Unknown Speaker
officials from A&U including um the interim vice chancellor and president, Professor Brown. Um welcome to you all. Would you like to make a statement or professor Leech? Does anyone have an opening statement?
>> Uh yes, thank you. Please proceed. Senator, >> um thank you chair and senators for the opportunity to appear here this evening. I'm delighted to be joined by our new chancellor, Dr. Gordon De Brower, and members of the A&U executive leadership team. Our global and diverse capability underpins our excellence in research and teaching. This year alone, we've welcomed students from over 80 countries to our university, and our community is enriched by our students, leading academics, and educators from all over the world. Just in September, 20 A&U researchers were awarded the prestigious Australian Research Council Future Fellowships in research areas spanning quantum technologies, climate and environmental resilience, food security, health, mathematics, and the humanities and social sciences. Only last week, the Australian Academy of Health Medical Sciences awarded A&U professor Lisa the outstanding first nature nations researcher medal for her work in advancing equitable cancer screening. This month, we announced that researchers from AU have received funding to build a sustainable materials workforce, answering fundamental questions in earth science, further advancing computational modeling to solve real world problems, adding to critical national national capability. The quality of our teaching has been recognized by the International Times Higher Education Rankings this year with our strongest teaching performance in six years. We also rose three places this year in the international QS rankings to 29th in the world, our best position in the last 5 years. And the Department of Education's [clears throat] recently released Quilt 2026 graduate outcome survey report showed that at A&U, our graduates are in high demand by employers with our domestic graduates recording a full-time employment rate of 96% ranking first in the group of eight universities and second amongst all Australian universities. But of course, we have work to do. We're well placed to address the governance related conditions applied to the university's registration by TEXA last month. Our chancellor and council will oversee the program of work to address these conditions and we'd welcome the release of Texas more detailed statement of reasons for the conditions. We are committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for our students, staff, our wider community. We've been consulting deeply with our community on the new anti-racism definition requirements and we believed we're well placed to meet the obligations that apply to all Australian higher education providers from 1 January next year. In August, we kicked off our 80th anniversary celebrations with the reopening of University House, the launch of our new university strategy A&U by 2030, and a community day with over 6,000 registered attendees. Few weeks ago, we welcomed thousands of concertgoers to ANU for a student-led celebration of Australian music. A fitting way to celebrate 80 years. So, senators, in summary, while we have significant governance reform work in front of us, we are really proud of our ongoing achievements of our people, what that we've achieved in teaching and research. We look forward to continuing to deliver on our mission as the Australian National University and building capability in areas that are of priority to the people of Australia. Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you. And um uh Dr. Dra, congratulations and welcome. It's wonderful to see you here. >> Um I'm going unless does anyone else have a statement they'd like to make? No. Okay, we'll go to Senator PCO there.
>> Thank you. Thanks for being here this evening and congratulations to uh Dr. Dra. Um, welcome back to Senate Estimates. I bet you didn't think you'd be back this quickly or at all. Um, uh, firstly, thank you for the work that is happening at the A&U. Um, see, very turbulent time, lots more work to do, but just want to recognize how far um, things have come since this time last year and how much work has gone into that. I'm certainly hearing a lot more optimism from staff and um students and thank you for the engagement on a bunch of um individual matters that people have brought to my office uh Cost of living is obviously a big issue in this country at the moment and it's something that number of students have raised um with me and I wanted to ask about the recent rental increases announced for those living on the A&U campus accommodation. I know that it is somewhat separate um to to your um what you have control on, but I think it has a big impact on your students. And and I'm told the increase is above inflation and brings the cheapest accommodation on campus at just under 700 bucks per Fortnite for an individual self-catered shared amenities room. So 325 bucks for a room where you're sharing a bathroom um and you have no inclusion of food. Um looking at what that means, students in on campus accommodation uh their costs have gone up 30% in 5 years. If you look at rental costs for Cambarons, uh they've gone up 17%. Um, so you're running it sort of double and campus accommodation is not protected by the ACT tenency act. Interested. Are you comfortable with those rates and increases? Um, what can be done? What is being done?
>> Um, thanks for the question, Senator, and I will in a moment um ask Sakur to provide more information should it be needed. Um we've spent a lot of time talking with our student representatives from Anuser about this matter and we are we are very concerned obviously about the impact of cost of living on our students. Um and as you highlighted some of these costs are out of our control because they're set by private providers. We have done what we can in terms of offsetting and reducing some of the utility costs that are within our control. Um, I've had a number of conversations with the executive of Anusa in relation to the tenency act and their rights as tenants and what that what that means. Um, but if you need more information um I could ask our chief operating officer.
>> Uh, thank you in vice chancellor. Thank you senator for the question. Um, as the in sorry Michael Schwer the chief operating officer beg your pardon. Um well all increases in not all increases in the operating costs can be absorbed as the vice chancellor said um we do take steps to try to minimize the impact on residents wherever we can. Uh this year for example we did absorb those utility costs rather than passing on costs through rent increases. Um but in all cases the weekly tariffs are independently assessed uh by an external valuer as well. Our accommodation tariffs not just rent but include direct and indirect costs such as amenities and other service costs such as those utilities, IT and various other student uh support services. And we're conscious that the cost of living issues are um significant. Uh but we are also uh we also believe that the cost of living on campus at a new will remain competitive in 2027 compared to other options around CRA.
>> Okay. Um thank you. That's that's good to know. Is it correct that the A&U sold management of its onampus accommodation to Dexus in 2019?
Uh, yes, Senator. >> I'm Yeah, I think that's the right date. Yeah,
>> that's correct.
>> Would it be possible to um table uh the terms of the current accommodation contracts between A&U and any management partners for its student on camp on uh
uh coup is uh
>> Senator I would have to just take that on notice if I can purely because the commercial arrangements of that of those contracts.
>> Sure. Um and maybe just on notice as well the current um vacancy levels of um all A&U accommodations. Uh and then
>> if you would like I can give you some uh vacancy figures now if you'd prefer. >> Great. Um so just at the moment um in terms of our occupancy levels essentially they range across we have quite a number of different lodges across uh the campus. Occupancy levels currently range from about 98.7% occupancy through to 68.7. Uh so it's quite a range. If you like I can table the full list or I can run through them now for you if you're interested in any particular numbers.
>> Tabling would be great. Thank you. Um, and have you done any modeling or or analysis of the cost benefit of A&U ownership and management of these facilities compared to the current and future private management agreements? Um, just looks like the costs are higher than comparable cities like Newcastle or
it's fair to say >> Yeah, I think it's fair to say that we haven't done specific modeling because there's a very uh there would have to be quite a few things to take into consideration including the existing contracts and how they would be dealt with under such an arrangement. So, we haven't done that specific model.
>> Um, and I want to really acknowledge the A&U's efforts to grow enrollments for lower SCS students. I know that's a real focus and you're doing a lot in that area and there's some um issues with the way that we collect data in this country. That means that say Cambarons don't get um much support uh with that. But do you see how on campus accommodation costs like this could really hinder those efforts and make it very hard for for families who don't have rich kids who don't have rich parents to actually enjoy the onampus experience that au is
well known for. We we do see that um Senator um and to that end this year we launched a a a new set of scholarships 150 vice chancellor scholarships targeted specifically for those students which include um full accommodation in our residential campuses and that's supported by our alumni and our and our donors. Brilliant. And so um at at the moment, obviously we won't know till census date next year, but I think that we've had full acceptance of those offers that went out not so long ago.
>> Well done. That's that's great to hear. I I've got more questions. I'll put them on notice because I'm I'm really keen to
to get to Texas. So thank you, Senator Scarr. And I'm just noting we're um breaking in about 11 minutes.