Australia's Vice Chancellors are among the highest paid in the world, at a time when the institutions they oversee are plummeting down international rankings.
The new analysis, which is now before a Senate Inquiry, recommends sweeping changes to the governance of Australian universities, to deliver better results for students, greater scrutiny of universities' accounts and a significant increase in transparency within the higher education sector.
The first recommendation is a cap on Vice Chancellor salaries at $430,000 per year, which would more than halve the pay of those currently earning the most.
The submission is now before the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee's Inquiry on Tertiary Education Legislation Amendment (There For Education, Not Profit) Bill 2025.
Key findings:
- From 1985 to 2023, accounting for inflation, remuneration in Group of Eight (Go8) universities more than quadrupled - from about $300,000 to $1.3 million. From 1985 to 2023, Go8 Vice-Chancellor remuneration grew eight times quicker than average full-time earnings.
- Australia's Vice-Chancellors are paid more than most university executives in most parts of the world. Over a dozen Australian Vice-Chancellors are regularly paid more than the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, including many outside of the Go8, such as the Queensland University of Technology and Swinburne University.
- Vice-Chancellors at foreign universities with similar global rankings are paid a fraction of what Australian Vice-Chancellors receive.
- There is also no correlation between student educational satisfaction and Vice-Chancellor remuneration.
"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," said Jack Thrower, Senior Economist at The Australia Institute and author of the submission to the Senate Inquiry.
"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.
"Vice-Chancellors oversee a system that is failing staff, students and the broader community.
"It's time that the federal government made sure that these public institutions are publicly accountable, starting with capping Vice-Chancellor pay."
