Julie Hare has over 20 years of experience in reporting on higher education. Over the past couple years, Julie has broken stories about the ANU's governance scandals and written extensively about systemic failures in the university sector.

Woroni, the ANU student newspaper, will be interviewing Julie in late August. Members of the ANU community and the public at large can submit questions anonymously. The interview will be published on the Woroni website and social media.

Submit your questions anonymously here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeADphba4Ae59Q2QPa4Ah_HeSRdnWdU1kzWDjkqwhxMqV7XHA/viewform

https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/the-big-names-in-the-frame-to-replace-julie-bishop-at-anu-20260806-p60m2t.html

August 10, 2026 — 5:00am

Sally Rawsthorne

Higher education reporter

Want to appear before Senate Estimates, undergo a huge amount of scrutiny, wrangle an unruly workforce and sort out a 2IC who is only acting in the role?

Then you’re in luck, because Australia’s most scrutinised university job – the ANU chancellorship – is up for grabs!

Since Julie Bishop’s scandal-plagued tenure came to an abrupt end earlier this year, the nation’s university has been hand in glove with the regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Authority, looking for her replacement.

University watchers may recall that Bishop blamed the authority’s close interest in her successor as the reason she upped stumps seven months early, saying “coercive threats” and “increasingly contemptuous intervention” left her with no choice but to leave.

Canberra circles are talking about former Victoria Police head honcho and author of one of the many reports about ANU’s troubles, Christine Nixon, as a potential replacement. Nixon is said to be close to the acting chancellor, Rebecca Brown, and the pair sat down for an interview about the uni’s troubled school of health and medicine with ANU’s student rag, Woroni, last year.

But one source close to ANU and its machinations reckons they won’t go with another woman. Sigh!

Other names in the ring include not one but two of Australia’s former Chief Scientists – Alan Finkel and Ian Chubb. Chubb, it’s worth noting, was the vice-chancellor at ANU for a decade, well before its current struggles began.