W hen Julie Bishop fronted hundreds of staff at the Australian National University to announce the vice-chancellor’s resignation on Thursday, she noted at the beginning of her chancellory address that it was R U OK? Day.

In response, the crowd laughed.

The departure of Prof Genevieve Bell has been anticipated for more than a week but it throws up more questions than answers. Staff are yet to hear whether about 100 jobs remain on the line, or if eight change proposals will still go ahead.

In the past 12 months a drastic university restructure has led to at least 399 redundancies and the proposed disestablishment of the Australian National Dictionary Centre, the Centre for European Studies, the Humanities Research Centre and the ANU School of Music.

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