2024-05-02
Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has urged the Government to cap VC salaries after annual reports of universities tabled in the Victorian Parliament reveal most Victorian vice-chancellors (VC’s) gave themselves hearty bonuses last year and are earning salaries of over $1 million.
Many of these VCs are at the helm of universities where wage theft has been rampant, as shown in the table below.
Table 1: Victorian university VCs who make over $1 million salaries and wage theft at those universities.
Quotes attributable to Senator Mehreen Faruqi:
“The Greens have long called for VC salaries to be capped. It is disgraceful for VCs to be earning well over $1 million a year, while university staff are systemically robbed of wages, and students are being buried under mountains of debt.
“VCs are shamefully pocketing big bonuses, while keeping staff in casual and insecure work. The corporate model needs to be dumped, it only works for uni management while utterly failing staff and students.
“It's obscene that the heads of public universities are raking in big, bloated pay packets, even where the universities themselves are falling into deficit.
“Unis are headed by corporate big wigs on huge salaries. Corrosive corporatisation has led to students in crisis and overworked and underpaid staff in stress.
“Minister Clare and the Labor government must overhaul uni governance and cap VC salaries urgently. Enough of the weasel words, it is time for action. This systemic problem must be addressed at its root.
“When it comes to higher education, the priorities are all wrong. Instead of being well-funded places of public good, where students have fee-free access to a safe learning environment and staff have secure jobs and fair pay."
Reference
Data from Page 3, NTEU Wage Theft Report November 2023, linked in this media release- https://www.nteu.au/News_Articles/Media_Releases/rampant_wage_theft_at_Australian_universities.aspx