The salaries of Australia’s top public university executives have been revealed, with almost 200 people taking home $500,000 or more a year.
Analysis of financial statements by Nine Newspapers shows Australian universities increased their spending on key management personnel by about 7 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
Hear today’s headlines on this episode of The Briefing:
Universities spent almost 240 million dollars on executive salaries in 2023. That’s up from 224 million the year before.
Top university executives usually include the vice chancellor, deputy vice-chancellors, senior academic administrators, and vice presidents.
Across the nation’s 37 public universities, Victoria and NSW had the largest increase overall.
Melbourne’s Monash University has the most “key executives,” with 16 of its staff on half-a-mill plus pay packets.
The University of Melbourne spent the most on its executives, at $13.7 million in 2023.
The analysis comes as the federal government is finalising a task force to advise the country’s education ministers on how to set executive salaries by June this year.
It’s an independent body education minister Jason Clare says will focus on rigor, transparency and more uniformity with other public sectors.
“It is clear that we need to strengthen governance arrangements at our universities and that’s what we’re doing,” Clare told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Subscribe to The Briefing, Australia’s fastest-growing news podcast on Listnr today. The Briefing serves up the latest news headlines and a deep dive into a topic affecting you. All in under 20 minutes.