The past decade has witnessed significant change in the role and responsibilities of planning units within Australian universities. The main change has been a broadening of the role from routine data analysis to a comprehensive set of responsibilities that commonly include: strategic planning, coordination of internal and external reviews, quality assurance and improvement, institutional performance monitoring, strategic internal and external reporting, management of a raft of stakeholder surveys, institutional research, provision of strategic advice on government policy directions and other external drivers of change and, in some cases, complaints management. The article outlines the changing role and accountabilities of planning units in Australian universities in light of rapidly evolving changes in government policy on quality assurance and compliance with external reference points, performance-based funding, the social inclusion agenda, and various types of accreditations and performance monitoring. It is argued that planning units can and must play an important role in the ever-changing landscape, yet there has been little attention paid to this topic in the literature. This is a serious gap, given the magnitude and rapidity of the change occurring in the Australian tertiary education sector and in the national economy and society more broadly.