The University of Canberra has started a tough cut-back in costs to try to bring its rising deficit under control.
Jobs and course cuts are being considered and an immediate block on foreign travel has been imposed. Appointments and recruitment of new staff is to be delayed.
Big projects are being reviewed and maintenance of existing buildings reduced "without compromising the health and safety of staff and students", as one of the university's executives put it.
UC's plight mirrors that at the Australian National University where the short-fall in revenue to cover spending was nearly $30 million more than it had anticipated. In the face of its climbing deficit, it too has clamped down on spending.
The University of Canberra had initially budgeted for going into the red by $26 million this year but that excess of spending over income is now forecast to have jumped to a deficit of $36 million.
The emergency measures were laid out to staff in a "town hall" meeting on Friday morning.
"We have to take responsibility and that's why we are being transparent with our staff," UC chief operating officer Jonathan Pheasant said.
He said the problem was "almost exclusively due to a decline in international student numbers".
He didn't blame the government explicitly but did say that the decline was because "the application process to study here has tightened".
"That's making it much more difficult for international students to come into the country," he said. It had "hampered" efforts by all universities to attract students from abroad and the revenue they bring.
The Albanese government has recently doubled the cost of a student visa and is planning to put a cap on the number of students from abroad.
"We are not sitting here blaming everyone else," the chief operating officer said. "Every university has been impacted."
But the consequences are clearly severe. When Mr Pheasant was asked if courses and jobs were safe, he said: "All options are on the table."
Earlier, acting vice-chancellor Lucy Johnston had talked of a "risk to sustainability" if immediate action wasn't taken.
The main union at the university feared that the scale of the financial situation threatened the very future of the institution.
"Not only has UC's governance crisis compromised UC's ability to deliver for students, it has the potential to threaten UC's survival," Lachlan Clohesy, the ACT head of the National Tertiary Education Union, said.
Staff members were told that remuneration to the university's employees had risen by nearly 20 per cent between 2021 and this year (up from $211 million to $251 million).
Unmentioned in the UC management presentations was the remuneration of the man Professor Johnston replaced in the top job until a permanent appointment is made: the previous vice-chancellor Paddy Nixon whose remuneration was $1.8 million in 2023 left suddenly in January.
"UC's situation has proven that millions of dollars of expenditure on executive salaries does not ensure sound leadership," Dr Clohesy said.
"For too long, we've had millionaire vice-chancellors going from university to university, stripping out millions for their own enrichment to the detriment of staff and students. They then leave with their bags of money before having to deal with any of the consequences of their actions."
And he said that the government needed to recognise the crisis faced by universities.
"Governments can no longer ignore the crisis of governance in our universities," Dr Clohesy said.
"Between wage theft in the hundreds of millions, rampant job insecurity, and out of control executive salaries, it is clear that some form of government review is necessary."
