Vice-chancellor pay

September 8, 2025

While it is hardly unexpected that accountants would focus upon pay and governance as the source of problems in Australian universities, these are superficial targets which mask determinants. The pay that vice-chancellors receive is a symptom, not a cause.

The central causes of what have become little more than state consultancies are that teaching students is now almost completely devalued. This began in the late 1970s-early 1980s and is now rife. Casual contract, part-time teachers are responsible for many first- and second-year undergraduate courses. If senior professors etc appear at lectures for these courses, it is in a Joan Sutherland-Nellie Melba at Sydney Opera House format of occasional guest performers with tutorials, marking etc left to the most junior staff.

Much research is directed toward future consultancies, largely uncritical, and should be carried out for commercial firms, not at universities.

Get rid of the non-teaching full-time professors and other managers. Make all promotions dependent on teaching performances and let the real flowers bloom.