Faced with plummeting revenues from overseas students as a result of COVID-19, and unable to access JobKeeper thanks to the way the federal government has tweaked the program to exclude public universities and colleges, the ANU was already reducing its workforce by 250 through voluntary redundancies and separations.

The latest cuts, an attempt to save an estimated $103 million a year from 2021, reflect the collapse in revenue from international students. At least half the savings are expected to be achieved through reducing spending on salaries.

The ANU's decision, which coincided with news Melbourne's RMIT was planning to cut 1200 jobs, and the University of NSW is going to cut another 250 positions, comes in the wake of moves to subsidise STEM courses at the expense of humanities earlier this year.

In April the Education Minister, Dan Tehan, announced a support package guaranteeing $18 billion in projected university funding, and $100 million of "regulator fee relief" across the sector.

Professor Schmidt has said the assistance fell short of what was needed to cover the collapse in revenue at ANU. Foreign student numbers are already below 2017 levels. They are expected to fall to 70 per cent of 2019 levels in 2021.

He described the government's support package, including the changes to course charges for STEM and humanities, as "not one I would have designed", but "not pathologically bad either".

To his credit the vice chancellor, a joint holder of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics, is determined to get the ANU, Canberra's third largest employer, through the crisis in the best possible shape. Unfortunately big changes and deep cuts will have to be made along the way. This will involve diverting resources into areas where the university has expertise, and which have potential for growth, and, in his words, cutting back in those areas which no longer have "critical mass".

The real hope is there will be additional stimulus for tertiary education in the budget to be handed down a few weeks from now on October 6.

Professor Schmidt, like other scientists and educators around the country, is keenly aware of the importance of the university sector's research function. He is also aware that if research, either in partnership with industry or as part of the normal academic process, is allowed to fall off the cliff as a result of COVID-19, the ripple effect could reach tsunami-like proportions eight to 10 years from now.

"The thing we really need, I think, is a research package," he said.

The need for such a program is abundantly clear given job losses at universities as a result of COVID-19 to date have already exceeded the 11,000 mark according to the National Tertiary Education Union. Unless additional federal government support is forthcoming the situation is only going to get worse. Universities Australia is now estimating $16 billion will have been lost to the sector by 2023, and 21,000 jobs by the end of 2020.

This is an apocalyptic scenario for what was, until 2019, Australia's fourth largest export industry. If Australian universities slash their levels of expertise and services as a result of the pandemic they won't be able to woo back foreign students come the recovery.

It is in the national interest to support them through this challenging time.