UNIVERSITY VICE-CHANCELLORS’ SALARIES GETTING OUT OF CONTROL
October 25
The report in Melbourne’s Age newspaper that RMIT’s Vice Chancellor was granted almost $80,000 in pay rises and bonuses while the university was experiencing severe problems due to a failed computer overhaul is graphic evidence that the salaries of Australian university VCs are getting out of control, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said on Friday.
“While Vice Chancellors’ salaries are not publicised, information gathered from annual reports suggests that top level executive salaries at Victorian universities, including Vice Chancellors, have grown up to 61% from 1995 to 2001,” said Mathew McGowan, NTEU Victorian Secretary.
“The largest growth has been at Melbourne University, where executive salaries have increased nearly 180% from 1995 to 2001, followed by Monash University with 113%. Over the same period, salary levels for the lowest and highest classifications of general staff at universities in Victoria grew by just under 20%, and for the lowest and highest classification of academic staff by 21%.”
“These increases are symptomatic of the increasing commercialisation of universities, resulting in Vice Chancellors acting more like the CEOs of major corporations,” said McGowan.
“It is particularly disturbing that the decision to increase the RMIT Vice Chancellors’ salary was made without reference to our governing council,” said Jeanette Pierce, President of NTEU Branch at RMIT. “The good governance of our universities should be about transparency and public accountability as well as economic and administrative efficiency.”
“The fact that such a large salary increase was granted to the Vice Chancellor at a time of some instability at RMIT sends completely the wrong signal to students and staff at the institution,” said Pierce.
“The NTEU believes if universities are doing so well financially that they can afford to pay their Vice Chancellor such large salary increases, the same generosity can be displayed to their staff in the upcoming enterprise bargaining round, when they will be pursuing a common wage claim of 24% for the period 2003-6,” said McGowan.
“It is the Union’s view that such a claim is affordable, reasonable and necessary in order for university staff to maintain their position relative to the workforce generally and other key comparable sectors in particular.”
“To back the justice of the Union’s wage claim, the NTEU intends to look more closely at the salaries of the Vice Chancellors at all Australia’s 38 public universities, and will be contacting them to obtain further information.”
For information and comment:
Mathew McGowan:
NTEU Victorian Secretary
0417 054 110
Jeanette Pierce:
NTEU RMIT President
0438 706 508