The Australian National University's pathway out of debt was predicated on an increase in student numbers, the vice-chancellor has said.
She also insisted the university was not cutting any educational programs during an ABC Radio interview on Friday morning as the university undergoes a major restructure amid financial problems.
The university was expecting a deficit of $60 million in 2024. This has blown out to more than $200 million.
Professor Bell said while the ANU was not over-reliant on international students, an expected increase in both domestic and foreign students has not happened.
"The federal government's managed growth targets for the university mean we will have less students in 2025 than we had in 2024 [and] less students in 2026 and 2027," she said.
"All of our educational offerings will remain."
The university had adopted a budget last year to get them out of debt.
"We didn't see those student numbers the way we hoped and the cost-cutting measures that were required for the budget hadn't been enacted, and so we find ourselves now in a position where the deficit requires larger controls," she said.
The federal government has proposed a cap on international student numbers, claiming that reducing migration will ease pressure on the housing market.
The ANU announced on Thursday they were planning a major restructure to colleges, with fifty jobs slated to be cut.
Professor Bell said this was "just a proposal", but a plan was to be set in stone by the end of the year.
"There's a period of time for feedback and for consultation that includes town halls and lots of conversations," she said.
Professor Bell, who became vice-chancellor in January, said when she first saw the university's book she "took a very deep breath".
"I took a very deep breath ... and looked at what I had inherited and thought to myself, this is a university I've known since I was a little girl [and] we have a lot of work to do," she said.
She said her predecessor, Brian Schmidt, was in a difficult situation managing the university during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement has been upsetting and chaotic for staff, National Tertiary Education Union ANU branch president Millan Pintos-Lopez said.
"We hope the university would come to the table and be flexible and creative with the way that they approach things," he said.
"There's definitely opportunities to redeploy staff."
Professor Bell agreed with Mr Pintos-Lopez's claim that when hundreds of jobs were cut in 2020, workload did not change.
"We cut a lot of people [staff] out of the system back in 2020 but the work didn't get any less, and we didn't do a good job of working out how to stop doing things," she said.
There are more than 80 executives earning $300,000 a year plus, and more than ten making more in excess of $500,000 a year, Mr Pintos-Lopez said
"If finances are such an issue, is that the appropriate amount to be paying some of these executives?"
Professor Bell did not rule out cutting her own salary, and said she had already cut her staff to half of Professor Schmidt's office.
"We've already reduced the senior leadership team," she said.
