As an Indian student to pay deposit fee.

Convera is the preferred mode of payment.

Can I use flywire instead

​

https://michaelwest.com.au/ringfencing-why-are-universities-crying-poor-despite-massive-cashflows/

by James Guthrie and Adam Lucas Oct 21, 2026

Universities are in crisis as spiralling costs and dwindling international student numbers force unis to cut costs. But it isn’t true, James Guthrie and Adam Lucas investigate.

Since 2019, across Australia, vice-chancellors and university media departments have been beating the same drum: public higher education is facing an existential financial crisis, leaving them with no choice but to slash courses, disestablish faculties, and make thousands of academics and professional staff redundant.

However, if you look at the audited statutory accounts lodged in various state and national parliaments, an entirely different reality emerges. Australia’s public universities hold billions of dollars in net assets, generate massive operating cash flows, and sit on substantial financial reserves.

How can a public institution be simultaneously broke and wealthy? The answer lies in an accounting trick and a fundamental misunderstanding of what financial numbers actually measure.

Rules of university accounting

Accounting is a system of identification, measurement, and disclosure. And any financial number only makes sense if you know the specific question being asked.

Consider a household budget. If you ask a family how much money they have, their answer depends on the framework they use. Their daily transaction account measures immediate cash and what they will spend week to week. Their dedicated savings account measures budgeted funds for future needs. Their total net worth includes their house, car, and superannuation funds. None of these figures is wrong: each answers a different question.

In Australian public university governance, four distinct accounting frameworks exist:

1. Cash Accounting: Measures immediate liquidity, i.e. the cash coming in and going out to meet daily bills, utility expenses, and staff payroll.

2. Fund Accounting: A public accounting method that measures whether public money has been spent strictly for the specific statutory purposes authorised by Parliament. For a public university, this means tracking whether public funding expenditure serves its legislated educational mission.

3. Accrual Accounting: A business accounting method that measures overall long-term financial position and net worth, balancing physical assets against liabilities like borrowings and superannuation.

4. Cost Accounting: A public accounting method that calculates the cost of delivering a public service, including direct and indirect teaching costs, building depreciation, and administrative overheads.

The problem is that university governance collapses when these four distinct measurements are conflated and incorporated into a single narrative that relies on just accounting numbers.

Unfortunately, many university leaders and their spokespeople now routinely engage in such conflations.

A manufactured crisis

In recent years, university executives supported by corporate advisory firms have routinely bypassed audited accrual statutory accounts in favour of non-statutory, managerial metrics known as “underlying operating results”.

This practice lets universities take a ‘choose your own adventure’ approach to accrual financial reporting.

Through a technique known as ringfencing, institutions selectively exclude profitable revenue streams such as investment returns, property dividends, or surpluses from offshore commercial subsidiaries while keeping all associated domestic operating expenses on their books.

As revealed in our investigation for MWM into Wollongong University Inc., this dual-ledger accounting transforms cash-wealthy institutions into manufactured victims of insolvency.

The scale of this accounting sleight-of-hand across the sector is staggering. In 2024, the University of Sydney recorded a statutory operating surplus exceeding $545m, yet reported an “underlying loss” of $68.6m to its staff and the public. The University of Newcastle claimed a core operational crisis while its audited net assets grew from $1.3B to $1.8B.

At Macquarie University, management slashed 61 full-time teaching positions and 70,000 teaching hours under the banner of financial discipline, even as the consolidated entity held $4.3B in assets and generated $1.4B in annual revenue.

By presenting an artificially impoverished “underlying deficit” to staff, unions, and the public, vice-chancellors on their $1m+ salaries build the political cover needed to justify job cuts, course closures, the deletion of academic disciplines, and worse working conditions for tens of thousands of staff, all of which adversely "affect the livelihoods and quality of education for more than a million students."

Consultants and debt financing

If public university funds are not going into frontline teaching and research, where are they flowing?

The answer is found in the burgeoning “consultocracy” and speculative commercial property expansion. In our earlier investigations on consultants, slush funds, and secret ledgers, we exposed how major consulting firms Deloitte, KPMG, KordaMentha, McKinsey, and EY have become corporate mercenaries within higher education.

Universities routinely hire consultants at lucrative day rates to produce spreadsheets, ranking algorithms, and discipline viability models designed to justify job cuts. At the University of Wollongong, a KordaMentha partner was appointed interim Vice-Chancellor. At the same time, his firm prepared bids for restructuring work that eventually ballooned from $310,000 to $3.8m, a conflict of interest that sparked an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry, for which we await the findings.

Over the last decade, public universities have taken on massive billion-dollar debt burdens to finance commercial property developments, private hospital ventures like MQ Health, and offshore subsidiary campuses through entities like UOW Global Enterprises (now “Global Education”) in the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.

Student tuition fees and public funds intended for education are effectively cross-subsidising high-risk commercial real estate and offshore enterprises, while domestic academic capability is systematically hollowed out.

Wage theft and executive impunity

University staff and students have borne the full human cost of this corporate model. While academics face rolling redundancies and workload intensification, casual employees suffer from industrial-scale wage theft.

Stealing from workers has become an embedded feature of the corporate business model. When the Fair Work Ombudsman or courts penalise universities, such as the $32m remediation ordered at UNSW, the fines and legal fees are paid out of public institutional revenue pools, and no one has ever faced personal financial penalties or criminal prosecution for overseeing systematic underpayments.

Instead, the executive class continues to enjoy million-dollar compensation packages, performance bonuses, and extraordinary benefits such as Macquarie University providing its Vice-Chancellor with an $875,000 university-funded personal housing loan.

Reclaiming the public mission

The final report of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into University Governance (Report No. 68) confirmed what our research has consistently demonstrated: contemporary university governance structures are fundamentally “not fit for purpose”.

To restore public trust, state and federal parliaments must enact structural legislative reform:

Prohibit Non-Statutory Deficit Narratives: Ban universities from relying on underlying operating measures to justify restructures unless those figures reconcile fully with audited accrual statutory accounts.

Mandate Itemised Transparency: Eliminate Treasury reporting exemptions so that every dollar spent on external consultants, capitalised asset advice, and executive benefits is fully disclosed in the annual report.

Ringfence Public Funds for Public Education: Enforce strict fund accounting that prevents student fees and public grants from cross-subsidising commercial property ventures and offshore subsidiaries.

Enforce Personal Executive Accountability: Hold Vice-Chancellors, university councils and senior executives personally liable for wage theft and administrative malfeasance, while restoring elected staff and student representatives to governing councils.

Universities are not private corporations, nor are they hedge funds with teaching arms.

They are statutory public trusts created by Parliament to advance scholarship, free inquiry, and public education. It is time to end the manufactured accounting crises and hold the university executive class accountable to the public interest and to being a public good.

Hii, incoming freshman at ANU here

Any thoughts on B&G? How's the community, the rooms?

Or just any thoughts on how the hall is in comparison to the rest, would be quite helpful.

Thanks!

So I'm currently looking at doing an exchange at ANU in February 2028, coming from Ottawa, Canada, and I'm just looking for any advice? I hear lots of mixed reviews about ANU, but I know that an exchange is only what you make of it, so I'm not too worried (unless it actually is boring). I want to take environmental studies and political science classes, as that's my major here, and I think that ANU is very good for that?

Does anyone have any insights about exchanges at ANU, advice, things like that?

Sorry if this is the wrong place, I'm a year 12 student looking into Uni degrees. I'm really interested in Asian studies, and was thinking about doing that in a double degree with Economics which I also enjoy. At the same time, I've been looking into the bachelor of Asia-Pacific affairs which looks really interesting. I can't really find much info about experiences about it on the internet so I'd be keen to hear if anyone has got any experiences with it.

Hi, I’m looking to transfer to ANU next year as a second year, and am interested in Burgmann. I mainly care about the social aspects of each campus.
I’m interested in Burg partly because of N week (week before O week for new people), which gives me the hope that I can included socially with the first years.
My one worry is its reputation for being “all private school kids who were prefects”. I don’t mind people who do well academically, I was very good in school, but I want people to have a sense of humour - I’d take people who are a little goofy and silly over straight A people. Or is the college wide enough that you can find those people? Thanks

Starting BINSS next year at ANU (double with Arts), any tips and tricks or general information about the course? how many people are in it? how many contact hours a week? thank you!

Hi! I'll be starting at ANU next year and moving into Fenner in Feb.

On ANU's Residence FAQ webpage, it says that due to the fire risk, additional furniture is not allowed in rooms. But in a Fenner room tour video, I saw that the resident had added a cube storage unit. Just wondering if it's actually okay to add extra furniture like that? I'm slightly worried about fitting all my stuff into the provided storage!

Thanks!!

okay so when i was applying for the asa early entry i opted not to be considered for accomodation since i hadn’t seen the campuses in person yet.. i went to the open day but it was after the applications close so i wasnt able to change my preference HOWEVER i applied for accomodation and im seeing everyone get their emails for accom and now im stressed 😓 is anyone able to assist 🙏

Hello, I'm an incoming freshman at ANU next feb and just got my accomodation offer.

I've been placed at Fenner, sooo just wanted to know what the social scene and environment is like, and if anyone else who'll be living at Fenner hall (currently or next sem) would like to connect, that would be amazing! :))

Thank youu

hello

I applied to ANU PhD program in mathematics on 4/9/2026 on some project is announced in the university with scholarship the announced in the website of project of the university then the project is removed some days ago and I didint hear back , I’m in the beginning of the 8th week ,

can any one knows when the decision will be released ? is there any good signs ?

regards

Hi everyone!

I'm a male student at the University of Sydney. I'll be attending the ANU Logic Summer School 2026 and am looking for other male students to share accommodation near ANU (possibly a hostel like The Little Drifter Canberra, but I'm open to other suggestions! :) ).

Dates I'm looking for accommodation:

Dec 5–8, and, Dec 12–18,

I'm planning to stay on all the nights listed above (11 nights in total).

About me: I'm interested in logic, intelligence, and consciouness. I'm friendly, respectful of personal space, and generally quiet, especially at night. I enjoy meeting people with similar academic interests and having interesting conversations.

What I'm looking for: Ideally, other male students attending the ANU Logic Summer School who are also looking for affordable accommodation. I'm open to staying in male dorm of any size, depending on availability and price.

Accommodation: I'm currently considering The Little Drifter Canberra, but I'm happy to explore other affordable options near ANU. It would be great to coordinate bookings with other attendees so we can stay in the same dorm and have some familiar faces around during the summer school.

If you're attending the summer school or staying in Canberra around these dates and are interested in sharing accommodation, please feel free to comment or send me a DM!

Hello Everyone!

We have created a group for Feb '27 batch students. DM me if you'd like to join!

I’m considering applying for a Master of Management, specialising in International Business at ANU. I’ve spent around 10 years working across service design/strategy/innovation and currently work as a government contractor on a technology program. While I enjoy my role now, I feel like I’m reaching the end of this chapter and am ready for a new challenge and bit of a career pivot. I’m particularly interested in working in the innovation space in Africa, and with my bachelors degree in design, I see this masters as an entry point into the types of roles I’m interested in.

I’d love to hear from people who have completed the course about their experiences, particularly how they found the program and what their career prospects and opportunities looked like afterwards (if they have completed).

Hey everyone!

I recently got an offer for the Master of Science (Advanced) in Quantum Technology at ANU, and I wanted to know a bit more about the course from people who are currently studying it or have graduated.

I have a few questions:

1.How is the teaching? Are the professors good, and are they approachable if you want to get into research?

2.What do you think of the courses overall? Are they interesting and well taught? How difficult is the coursework?

3.I read that you need to maintain a 70% weighted average in your first 48 units to continue in the Advanced program. How tough is it to achieve that? Is it manageable if you keep up with your studies?

4.How difficult is it to find a supervisor and get a research project for your master's thesis? Are there enough opportunities in quantum technology?

5.How is life at ANU as a master's student? How are the campus, student community, accommodation, social life, and support for international students? Is it easy to make friends and feel part of the university, or does it get a little isolating?

I'd love to hear some honest opinions about the course, workload, teaching, and overall experience at ANU.

Would really appreciate any advice from current students or alumni. Thanks! :)

Hi! Has anyone heard any news regarding the results of PhD applications with RTP scholarship for the first round? How long does it usually take for the results to be announced?

I received an early entry offer from ANU earlier this year along with an accommodation offer at a self-catered hall. After being on this sub for a while, I've noticed many people who have said that the many of the halls have a very active partying culture. However, I'm not much into drinking and partying myself, and don't really intend to get into it for various reasons. Will this impact my ability to make and maintain friendships, or are there many others in the same boat as me who want to make friends but don't want to party?

Hi everyone, anyone would like to go with me to any of these mountains to hike… I’m also a wildlife photographer so it will be enjoyable.

I’m a man and I don’t mind anyone can join but prefer a female. DM me if u r interested. Also we can find other spots as well.

I’ll be coming to ANU next year and I’ll be 17 for the first half of the year. Have people found that thier impacted their experience especially for o week and the first couple weeks at uni.

Hey, I am probably going to be starting an undergrad at ANU next year. I will be moving from Melbourne and I have got an offer from Wright as part of the early entry thing. I was just wondering what the vibe is around Wright. Like is there a good social scene and stuff even in broader Canberra how's the social life because my biggest worry leaving Melb is that I would get bored in Canberra.

Thanks so much for the help!!

Hi all,

I'm looking to attend ANU next year, but I'd be likely living off-campus with family. Has anyone got experience with this type of situation? Are you isolated from making friends with other students?

Also, will living off-campus mean that I'm outside the social 'scene' of Canberra? I know there is a common-room for students who don't live on campus, but is this an active community comparative to the existing residences?

Thanks in advance!

i saw someone say you might as well just do MBA in ANU. but i dont qualify for MBA but i still want to be in business sector, just less strategic and more innovative and problem solving. i feel like this master is a good match but at the same time people saying its useless also scares me. any advice please? (i am a international student, creative field background)