Australia Institute calls for cap on rising university vice-chancellor salaries, with many earning $1m a year

The salaries of Australia’s highly-paid university chiefs are surging “out of control”, a public think-tank has told a Senate inquiry. Many university vice-chancellors now earn more than $1 million a year — well above the Prime Minister’s pay — and The Australia Institute has argued their salaries should be capped at $430,000 year. Annual reports released in March revealed WA had two vice-chancellors earning more than $1 million a year, at Curtin University and the University of Western Australia. In its analysis submitted to a Federal Senate committee inquiry on the Tertiary Education Legislation Amendment (There For Education, Not For Profit) Bill, the institute also called for greater scrutiny of universities’ accounts and more transparency in the higher education sector. The analysis found that remuneration for the nation’s elite Group of Eight universities — which includes UWA — had more than quadrupled from 1985 to 2023, growing eight times faster than average full-time earnings. The submission also noted Australia’s vice-chancellors were paid more than most university executives in other parts of the world, but there was no correlation between their pay and student satisfaction. “Vice-chancellor remuneration is out of control, it has skyrocketed since the 1980s, and Australian vice-chancellors are now some of the highest-paid university executives in the world,” The Australia Institute’s senior economist Jack Thrower said. “Vice-chancellors are paid like corporate CEOs but are not held to the same standards of accountability. “The institutions they oversee are publicly-funded but vice-chancellors are not subjected to the same level of public scrutiny as senior public servants. “It’s time that the Federal Government made sure that these public institutions are publicly accountable, starting with capping vice-chancellor pay.” A submission from the University Chancellors Council cautioned against a legislated salary cap, arguing it would undermine universities’ capacity to attract and keep executives with the necessary talent and expertise. Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy wrote in his submission that vice-chancellors led major organisations that underpinned local economies, as well as supporting jobs and educating students. “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,” he said.