Deloitte Report on University Merger Has Hundreds of Millions in Errors, WA Government Seeks Its $166,000 Back

The Western Australian government has said it is 'extremely disappointed' and is seeking an expedited cost recovery from consultancy firm Deloitte. The move came after errors were found in a report on a potential university merger.

The government paid Deloitte $166,000 for a feasibility study on merging the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Murdoch University.

Deloitte considered three merger options between the three universities, with 'low', 'mid' and 'high' cost scenarios, and broke down the calculations in the report's appendix.

Under the 'high' cost scenario for a merger between Curtin and UWA, the report put total costs to day one at $514 million and post-day-one costs over five years at $145 million. Those two figures total $659 million, but the report wrote $399 million — a $260 million discrepancy.

Under a 'low' cost scenario for a merger of Curtin, UWA and Murdoch, total costs to day one were $396 million and post-day-one costs over five years were $116 million. That total would be $512 million, but the report calculated the two numbers to $823 million — a $311 million discrepancy.

Prof Stephen Bartos, an expert in public sector governance at the University of Canberra, said the errors discredited the report. He said they were so extensive that a new report was probably needed, or at the very least a ground-up manual rework without the use of AI.

The same report had already put Deloitte under pressure this month when media reports revealed it contained hallucinated AI references. The state opposition labelled it 'AI slop'.

Deloitte admits in its report that it used generative AI to support the collation of research, synthesis of information and editorial proofing. It had earlier dismissed the errors as 'minor'.

A spokesperson for the WA government said the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification had written to Deloitte to expedite the cost recovery process. The spokesperson said the government was advised the errors did not affect the modelling or findings, but any errors would be corrected as part of a Deloitte review that would re-issue the report.

The WA tertiary education minister, Tony Buti, first described the errors as 'typos', though a day later he said he was angry and disappointed with Deloitte.

In the report, Curtin University is referred to repeatedly as the Curtin University of Technology — a name the institution has not used since 2010 and that was changed under an act of state parliament in 2017.

Murdoch University did not support the merger. Its vice-chancellor, Prof Andrew Deeks, wrote in an op-ed on the university's website that a merger would cost a lot of time, money and energy, while reducing choices for students and alienating alumni. Deloitte did not respond to questions.