AUT study fuels review body calls

THE erosion of academic pay levels has been highlighted in a new study for the Association of University Teachers by one of the United Kingdom's leading economists.

Work by Chris Trinder, chief economist of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, lends weight to arguments for an independent pay review body for academic and related staff. Mr Trinder compared academic salaries with the salaries of professionals covered by such bodies since 1980.

He discovered that the pay of all lecturers, including professors, in old and new universities had risen by an average of 252 per cent since 1980. By comparison, public sector pay, mostly covered by review bodies, has increased by 317 per cent.