Through a series of amalgamations, relocations, transfers of responsibilities and diocesan initiatives, more than 20 historical entities have contributed to the creation of the university.

[12] ACU's vice-chancellor and president, Zlatko Skrbis, is responsible for representing the university both nationally and internationally and for providing strategic leadership and management.

This was part of spending cuts intended to reduce a forecast $30 million deficit and respond to shrinking enrollments.

The cuts were announced as a $250 million campus building, which was constructed to accommodate student and staff growth, neared completion.

Timothy Williamson, a professor of philosophy at Oxford and Yale, told reporters that ACU's meteoric rise to the pinnacle of research in philosophy was "unprecedented" but that cuts would give ACU the reputation "as a Mickey Mouse university ... damaging the good international standing of the Australian university system as a whole".