If the new Senate means to pick up where the last one stopped, there will be committee hearings into Jacqui Lambie’s Bill to cap VC pay at what the Treasurer is paid.
The university establishment hoped it would go away, all but ignoring calls for submissions on the Bill – of which there were but six.
The University Chancellors Committee presented four reasons why a cap is a very bad idea:
- It fails to account for university size and complexity;
- It “ignores market realities,” and potentially makes Australia uncompetitive in the international market and undermines performance-pay models;
- It risks “non-salaried and non-financial methods of remuneration, adding pressure on governance, and potentially exacerbating public concern;” and
- It imposes more government intervention.
Good-o, but their excellencies rather miss the way the complexity of the task does not drive pay relativities. Last year’s Uni Queensland annual report (income $2.83bn) states VC Deborah Terry was paid $1.158m. Just up the road at Uni Sunshine Coast ($400m revenue) VC Helen Bartlett received $935,000.
TEQSA advises that beyond overall university financial viability, VC pay is nothing to do with it. But the Agency does remind the Committee it is represented on the new Expert Council on University Governance, which is charged with developing “rigorous processes for setting pay.” Perhaps no has ever advised it that no one likes a smart agency.
Universities Australia defends its members (once upon a time it was called the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee) and saddles up a horse so high that mounting it would require a cherry-picker. “This is yet another example of our sector being weaponised for political gain, and yet another distraction from the conversations we need to have about funding universities properly for the good of the nation … Our sector is being asked to do more with less, and it has been for some time. And now, the same is being asked of Vice-Chancellors.”
Australia Institute (an “independent policy think-tank”) sums up its view, “the pay of Australia’s Vice-Chancellors is among the highest in the world. Although they are paid like corporate CEOs, they are not subject to the same levels of scrutiny and accountability. Capping Vice-Chancellor remuneration is a necessary step to bring good governance to universities and refocus the sector on education and research.”
And, perhaps not intentionally, it invokes the power of markets, pointing out VCs are paid way over the going rate for comparable campuses. Both Uni Melbourne and Uni Copenhagen are in the Times Higher global top 100 but on AI’s numbers the last VC of the former was paid A$1m more than his opposite number at the latter. Perhaps international head-hunters consider Parkville a hardship post.
The National Tertiary Education does not state that anybody who thinks perfect is the enemy of the good needs a spell at a re-education campus. However the comrades do point out there are far too many university executives earning way too much. They also make the entirely reasonable point that the Bill politicises pay, giving Parliament the power to cut or increase per each institution.
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations makes similar points but explains the injustice in terms that will resonate with Gen Z researchers who can only dream of smashed Avo toast. The average VC salary will buy 400,000 avocados.