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Fresh calls to cap VC pay
Annual reports show many leaders of public universities earn salaries at or near $ 1 million .
The latest round of annual reports has led to renewed claims from the Greens of hypocrisy amongst universities for paying large salaries to vice-chancellors whilst pushing for the right to increase student fees .
Data from public universities shows that some chiefs are earning more than $ 1 million annually . Universities have previously defended the salaries in the context of their high operating revenues and the need to ensure they could attract the best executive leaders possible .
Amongst the high-flyers in 2014 was Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor professor Peter Coaldrake , whose salary increased from $ 1.028 million in 2013 to $ 1.059 million in 2014 .
And the grant goes to …
Academics say secret ballot amongst peers – Oscars-style – could streamline the awarding of funds .
An Academy Awards-style voting system could help reduce grant application writing time without compromising the fairness of research fund distribution , a group of academics says .
A recently launched pilot research project , by Queensland University of Technology and the University of Melbourne , is asking Australian-based researchers to take part in a secret ballot indicating who amongst their peers they believe should receive NHMRC grant funding .
QUT health statistician associate professor Adrian Barnett , who is spearheading the initiative , said previous studies had indicated researchers spent a collective 550 years of work time writing and carefully crafting applications for NHMRC project grants in 2012 alone . With that figure calculated to have reached 614 years in 2014 , Barnett said alternatives to the existing model needed to be considered .
“ The time spent applying for funding is a huge opportunity cost and for the 85 per cent of researchers who fail to win funding , that
Meanwhile , James Cook University vice-chancellor professor Sandra Harding earned $ 927,000 last year and University of Western Australia ’ s professor Paul Johnson earned a package worth about $ 960,000 – down from $ 1.019 million in 2013 .
Greens higher education spokeswoman Senator Lee Rhiannon said there appeared to be no “ justification for why vice-chancellors are being paid salaries more than twice the prime minister ”.
“ Vice-chancellors can ’ t have it both ways ,” Rhiannon said . “ They can ’ t argue their universities are so financially healthy they should personally be rewarded while simultaneously trying to deregulate student fees in order to boost revenue . It ’ s time to rein in the exorbitant salaries paid to many vice-chancellors by considering capping them at the same level as the prime minister – at the most . “ Limiting wage increases of vice-chancellors to those received by academic and general staff would also be a good place to start ; many university staff I have spoken to expressed dismay at vicechancellors ’ double standards .”
The latest criticisms of VC pay follow an analysis released last September by the National Tertiary Education Union suggesting that six university chiefs earned more than $ 1 million each in 2013 .
In a statement to Campus Review at the time , UWA said the university was a “ billion-dollar business and one of the largest single-site employers in the state , with around 4000 staff and 25,000 students . It is important to offer competitive salaries to attract the best candidates to run such a complex organisation .”
JCU chancellor John Grey echoed the sentiment , telling News Ltd that Harding ’ s salary was set using “ appropriate market benchmarks ”. “ In these increasingly competitive times , universities require exceptionally capable and influential leadership ,” Grey was reported as saying . n
time could have been better spent on actual research ,” Barnett said . “ Complex problems , such as fierce competition for a small funding pool , don ’ t necessarily need complex solutions . Taking votes from Australian researchers about who deserves funding is a radical approach but one we think is worth investigating .
“ Over-competition for limited research funding is a common problem the world over . I think international research communities will be keen to see our results .” Barnett – along with QUT colleague professor Nicholas Graves and University of Melbourne health economist professor Philip Clarke – has argued that the success of applications under the existing model has been too reliant on the opinions of peer reviewers .
“[ This ] leaves you at the mercy of the luck of the draw of getting a good spokesperson ,” Barnett said . “ Democracy has potential merit because it ’ s essentially a very low-cost form of peer review , involving many peers who have little individual influence .”
Barnett and his colleagues plan to compare the collated results from their online survey with the actual funds allocated to researchers by the ARC and NHMRC in recent years . The pilot study will take into account the number of successful grants and the total funding won .
“ That should give us a pretty good indication of how closely the democratic voting system mirrors the current system ,” Barnett said .
A response to the researchers ’ proposed funding model , as well as to the criticisms of existing application and funding processes , was being sought from the NHMRC at the time of press . n
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