The high pay of university vice-chancellors has come under the scrutiny of a NSW parliamentary committee.

The high pay of university vice-chancellors has come under the scrutiny of a NSW parliamentary committee.Credit:

“The vast disparity between the salaries paid to senior university administrators and the casual and insecure payments made to so many of the staff who actually conduct the teaching and research in universities is a matter of real concern,” the report said.

“The current system that sees university vice-chancellors paid 25 or 30 times more than many of the people undertaking the core work of universities must be reviewed and the failure to do this by the governing bodies of universities is evidence of a failure of leadership.”

The Auditor-General has oversight of NSW universities’ financial statements,which are audited and reported to Parliament each year.

But the committee,which is chaired by One Nation MP Mark Latham,said it wanted this role expanded to have a “broader brief and stronger investigative capacity” that looked more closely at issues of senior executive salaries,staff management and international student income.

Among the report’s 39 recommendations were calls for compulsory public reporting on how many university employees were kept on full-time,part-time and casual contracts,as well as the balance between teaching and research roles.

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It also suggested universities be required to report comprehensive data about international student revenue and their enrolments by course,country and study program.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said he disagreed with some of the report’s material but gave “wholehearted” support to the recommendations around executive pay and increased transparency on the makeup of university workforces,particularly casual and contract work for academics.

“The growth of insecure work and the excessive payments to vice-chancellors and managers is another attack on quality and decency in the sector,” he wrote.

The heads of six NSW universities were paid more than $1 million each in 2019,the most recent year for which data is widely available.

Departing Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spencetops the list at $1.6 million,including super and bonuses. University of NSW vice-chancellor Ian Jacobs earns $1.28 million a year,the inquiry was told.

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Spokeswomen for Macquarie University and UNSW said their universities were reviewing the report’s recommendations.

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said:“We are currently considering this lengthy report and its 39 recommendations to the government. We’re of course deeply committed to transparency and to ensuring appropriate accountability for universities.

“The University of Sydney made a detailed submission to the inquiry and gave evidence before the committee.”

Addressing the issue of remuneration,Dr Spence told the inquiry there were 247 academic staff and 45 administrators at his university who were paid more than $250,000 a year.

“There is a lot of mythology around the notion that academics in Australia are underpaid. In fact,this is a generously paying system,” he said. “That said,Australian vice-chancellors are very generously paid.”

Professor Jacobs told the inquiry he had “some concerns about insecure employment” andstaff who had been affected by the coronavirus crisis.

But he said casual employees made up “a relatively small part of our workforce”,comprising 740 of 7200 full-time equivalent positions.

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