Embattled Australian National University (ANU) chancellor Julie Bishop has resigned abruptly, saying “regulatory overreach” is undermining institutional autonomy.

Bishop, a former federal education and foreign affairs minister, said she felt “deeply privileged” to have led ANU’s governing body since 2020 and continued to regard the university as a “truly national treasure”. But “unprecedented and coordinated interference” had left the university’s council unable to discharge its legal and ethical obligations.

“The higher education sector is at a crossroads of regulatory overreach in the governance of our institutions or autonomy and academic freedom. I fear the collateral from this regulatory overreach will be the next generation of students and staff.”

Bishop had previously insisted that she would see out her term, which was due to conclude at the end of 2026. Her early departure follows the higher education regulator Teqsa’s takeover of the process to recruit her successor, amid escalating signs of internal division at the university.

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The Saturday Paper that ANU had thwarted Bishop’s attempts to obtain emails suggesting that then provost Rebekah Brown, who is now interim vice-chancellor, had orchestrated a campaign to secure the removal of then vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell. This prompted claims that Brown was being scapegoated to mask the council’s failings.

One of the council’s fiercest critics, Australian Capital Territory senator David Pocock, said Brown had provided stability and leadership following a “horrid couple of years” for the university. “I’m certainly hearing that the leadership of the interim vice-chancellor…is going well,” he said.

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“The only constant in all of the shambles we’ve seen at the ANU has been the chancellor and the council. We cannot see the scapegoating of the interim vice-chancellor, and we cannot see the second female vice-chancellor of the ANU removed in the space of two years.”

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said Bishop’s departure was overdue. “[It] closes one of the darkest chapters we’ve seen at any Australian university,” said union president Alison Barnes. “Staff have suffered enormously during her disastrous reign. ANU was the canary in the coalmine for the toxic governance crisis that infected our universities.”

The NTEU’s ANU branch president, Millan Pintos-Lopez, said Bishop’s departure marked an opportunity for the university community to “turn the page” on the recent programme of staff cuts. “Our members have been calling for accountability and change for the past 18 months, and this announcement will bring relief to many staff.”

The ANU Council said pro-chancellor Larry Marshall, a former chief executive of the national science agency CSIRO, would act as chancellor pending a permanent appointment. It said that over her six years in the role, Bishop had “raised the university’s profile domestically and internationally” and “strengthened global connections” despite the Covid pandemic.

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“The council is committed to providing a new period of strong and positive governance and leadership…[and] restoring the university’s reputation with our community,” it said.

Bishop’s departure will not end the turmoil at the university. An Australian National Audit Office report into the university’s financial management is expected to be released imminently, with Teqsa’s appraisal of ANU’s governance following later in May.

Two other reports – former public servant Vivienne Thom’s investigation of bullying allegations against Bishop, and former Deakin University vice-chancellor Jane den Hollander’s probe of nepotism allegations against Bell – are said to have exonerated Bishop and Bell, but neither has been released publicly.

The ANU council will also endure the ignominy of Teqsa supervising the recruitment of the next chancellor. Times Higher Education understands that Bishop complained about Teqsa’s intervention in a three-page resignation letter tendered to the university and the federal government.

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University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese has also Teqsa’s action as “a dangerous precedent” and “part of a disturbing pattern of intrusions into the autonomy of universities. “Selecting the chair of a governing council should be the exclusive prerogative of that council,” Varghese said. “The regulator should have no influence on who is chosen.

“The essence of autonomy is that you are responsible for fixing what has gone wrong and are held accountable for doing so. Regulatory overreach weakens public institutions. It is wrong in principle and corrosive in practice. If universities don’t defend their autonomy, don’t expect anyone else will.”

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A source, who asked not to be named, said Varghese’s comments “may not age well” when the coming reports were released. “It’s great that we have a regulator that’s prepared to act when there’s governance failure,” the source said.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com