Limit vice-chancellor salaries to A$430,000, senator says

Australia’s public universities would be forced to slash their vice-chancellors’ salaries by an average of A$594,000 (£300,000) a year or risk losing their registration, under a private member’s bill tabled by an independent federal parliamentarian.

The “there for education, not profit” bill, tabled by straight-talking Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, would restrict vice-chancellors’ remuneration to no more than A$430,000 – 58 per cent below the public university average of about A$1.026 million in 2023, and 16 per cent below that year’s lowest package of A$515,000.

A separate bill would set the same maximum on federal departmental secretaries’ salaries. Lambie said a “big stick” was needed to constrain the earnings of university executives and particularly vice-chancellors, whose pay was “in the stratosphere”.

“We need to put an end to the culture of obscene entitlement at the top of our universities,” she told the Senate. “Vice-chancellors are supposed to be there to put the education of Australians first. But what do you know? They put self before service.”

Her bill would amend the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act to impose a A$430,000 statutory limit on vice-chancellors’ pay. Higher amounts could be specified by the education minister, but only through legislative instruments that could be disallowed by either house of parliament.

This would give parliament “ultimate authority” over the maximum remuneration available to the heads of substantially commonwealth-funded institutions, according to an explanatory document. Universities that exceeded the limit would risk “administrative sanctions” including curtailment or cancellation of their registration.

Amendments to the Australian National University Act would enforce similar provisions on the sector’s only federally governed entity.

Lambie said her “arbitrary” threshold was marginally below the A$438,113 salary of the treasurer, Australia’s third best-paid federal politician. “This is a reasonable and proportionate remuneration benchmark that reflects the responsibilities of university chief executives within the broader context of the Australian public sector and democratic governance.”

Private members’ bills rarely pass Australia’s parliament, and Lambie’s legislation may never be debated. It is not listed on the current “notice paper” of the Senate, which has only a few remaining sitting days before parliament is dissolved in mid-April – or sooner – for this year’s general election.

Lambie conceded that her proposals were unlikely to be realised before the election, but said she would seek support from all senators. “This overpayment of our vice-chancellors and our top bureaucrats has to stop. It is completely and utterly out of control.”

She said university bureaucrats had “blown away” their social licence by pocketing “huge salaries” while students were “doing it tough” and “poorly paid” teachers experienced “wage theft”.

The government has announced members of an expert university governance council to examine issues including executive salaries. Lambie described it as a “bureaucratic cop-out” that lacked enforcement mechanisms and would seek to bring salaries in line with the top echelons of the public service.

“All but two department heads get paid more than A$900,000,” she said. “Vice-chancellors are already in that cohort of salaries.”

Separately, a Senate committee has begun an inquiry into quality of governance at Australian universities.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com