The ANU School of Cybernetics, launched with bold ambitions to shape the future of technology, is not at the centre of controversy. With 28 academic staff and just 15 PhD students this year, it has the highest staff-to-student ratio on campus. Meanwhile, other tutorials across ANU are routinely crammed with 30 or more students. 

The School of Cybernetics was founded by Professor Genevieve Bell, recruited from Intel in 2017. Bell’s Silicon Valley background and unorthodox approach have shaped the school into a highly personalised fiefdom. 

The school’s teaching focuses on a single master’s degree program, alongside a handful of microcredentials for government and businesses priced at $2,310 each. 

The year-long program is made up of four subjects, for which domestic students fork out $37,710 and international students $53,370. However, cohorts are all on $34,000 tax-free scholarships.

The school’s staffing structure raises questions. Professorships have been awarded to academics with no PhD, little research, and no record of supervising postgraduates. Professor Paul Matin, of the Australian Association of University Professors, criticises this trend. “Generally, the expectation is that to become a professor, there are four things that you would expect in different combinations. 

First is substantial research in academic publications. Second, substantial academic teaching, third, postgraduate supervisions, and fourth, being known and respected in an academic community,” he says. This typically takes fifteen years. 

At Cybernetics, some staff members achieved full professorship in a matter of years.

The school produces little research, with limited evidence of broader scholarly output. Both ANU and external academics question its value to the university’s intellectual life—especially given the heavy cuts to the School of Music and the Australian National Dictionary Centre.

The School has also come under scrutiny for grade inflation. An anonymous whistleblower revealed that between 2019 and 2024 91 percent of grades awarded were high distinctions. Another 7percent were distinctions, leaving just 2 percent as credits. No student failed or simply passed.

These figures are strikingly abnormal, given that marks typically follow a bell curve. A global review of 17,000 PhD student records showed that only 17 percent of students typically pursue further studies within the same institution. 

The combination of a tiny cohort, extraordinarily high grades, and internal progression raises concerns about academic standards and independence.

The whistleblower also showed that in 2019 the entire inaugural cohort of 16—all of whom were on $50,000 tax-free scholarships—received high distinctions.

Boasting the world’s only Master of Applied Cybernetics, the school was built at breakneck speed to showcase the ANU’s ambition. 

But its unusual structure, heavy staffing, and thin student numbers prompt serious questions about whether the university has gambled too much on a pet project.