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ABC News
28-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell says she's committed to implementing the report's recommendations.
Australian National University Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell says an external investigator will review allegations of "wildly inappropriate behaviour" within the College of Health and Medicine. The allegations are contained in a second, confidential report by Professor Christine Nixon who yesterday released a damning review of the "toxic" culture within the college.
ABC News
28-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
'Wildly inappropriate behaviour' within Australian National University medical college to be investigated
People accused of "wildly inappropriate behaviour" at the Australian National University's medical college could be fired if allegations are proven, Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell says. A report by Professor Christine Nixon into gender and cultural issues at the College of Health and Medicine and its constituent schools — found an entrenched toxic culture and a "remarkable tolerance for poor behaviour and bullying". The college includes the John Curtin School of Medical Research, the School of Medicine and Psychology, and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health. Professor Bell said a second, confidential report by Professor Nixon was also presented to university leadership, which included allegations about people who still worked at the university as well as ex-staff. "We expected, as people talked to [Professor Nixon], that people were going to disclose and make allegations about really wildly inappropriate behaviour and we asked her to quarantine that from the report," Professor Bell said. Professor Bell said an external investigator would be appointed to review those allegations. "At the moment they are allegations and the thing about that is they need to be investigated appropriately," she said. She did not rule out firing people if the allegations were found to be true. "When we have had serious misconduct we will manage it within the parameters that we have," Professor Bell said. Professor Bell said the report primarily focused on one college — arising from "disturbing accounts" of what had been happening. Since the review was commissioned last year, ANU closed the College of Health and Medicine and created a combined College of Science and Medicine. Professor Bell said the eight key findings and 17 recommendations made in the report were "absolutely" applicable across the university. Profesor Bell said previous reports into different aspects of the College of Health and Medicine over the years had pointed to challenges in the culture there. "I suspect this is not a recent phenomenon," she said. "Something that's been there that long will take time to unpick and change." She said she read the report alongside her predecessor Brian Schmidt, and said all previous vice-chancellors had "done their best" to improve the university. "He reflected on how hard it is to change large institutions," Ms Bell said. "He said it was a hard read — which it has been for all of us." ANU Students' Association president William Burfoot said the report's findings were "shocking and incredibly, incredibly concerning" but reflected a culture not limited to just the medical school. "I don't think it's unique to the medical school. "It is a more pervasive issue and that just requires us to do much, much more to address it and to make sure that these kinds of things can't continue to happen." Mr Burfoot said it was great the report was initiated and shared publicly, but the community needed to see "top to bottom" change implemented. Professor Bell said the university was already taking steps to implement the report's recommendations. She said a leader had been allocated to each recommendation and would report back on first steps taken by July. "There should be an expectation about accountability. There should be an expectation about action." Professor Bell said Professor Nixon would carry out a follow-up assessment at the beginning of 2026.
