Just three of Victoria’s vice-chancellors took pay cuts last year despite growing outside pressure to address “broken” university governance and accusations of “executive largesse”.
The universities’ latest annual reports, tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, showed six of Victoria’s nine vice-chancellors increased their pay or left it unchanged last year compared with 2023.
Five were paid more than $1m annually, none higher than the University of Melbourne’s Duncan Maskell, whose salary hit $1.5m in 2024 before his retirement this year.
Maskell’s pay was reduced to $1.4m in 2023 amid an operating deficit of $71m. Last year, the university recorded a larger deficit of $99m, the report revealed.
A spokesperson for the university said the main reason for the remuneration increase was annual leave entitlements, paid on completion of the contract.
The president of the National Tertiary Education Union, Dr Alison Barnes, said despite “years of community outrage”, Victoria’s chancellors were continuing to sign off on “even more executive largesse”.
A November report by the NTEU found 306 senior executives were earning more than the premiers of their university’s state, at an average of six per institution.
“On one hand, universities blame budget deficits for job cuts, and with the other they push vice-chancellor pay into the stratosphere,” she said.
“Add these insulting pay bumps to the sky-high pile of evidence showing university governance is completely broken.”
The education minister, Jason Clare, told Guardian Australia that the expert council on university governance, established by Labor last year, would look at the remuneration settings of senior university staff.
“We need to strengthen governance arrangements in our universities,” he said. “The council will help build better institutional governance structures.”
The council’s recommendations and advice will be provided to ministers later this year.
The largest pay bump went to Swinburne University’s Prof Pascale Quester, who received a $130,000 annual increase for a total salary of $1.1m.
Deakin University ($1m), Victoria University ($850,000) and Federation University ($910,000) also increased the pay of their vice-chancellors by $50,000, $10,000 and $20,000 respectively. RMIT’s vice-chancellor’s pay remained unchanged at about $1m.
Overall, six universities were in the red in 2024 and three posted a surplus – Swinburne ($28.1m), Victoria University ($66.1m) and RMIT ($1.8m) However, overall deficits largely improved on 2023.
A spokesperson for Victoria University said the vice-chancellor, Prof Adam Shoemaker, had received his first increase, in alignment with public sector benchmarks, since his appointment in 2021.
Shoemaker said 2024 had been a “remarkably successful year for VU, but our work continues in the context of the University Accord”.
A Federation University spokesperson said the vice-chancellor’s $910,000 salary was set independently by the University Council and benchmarked against other sectors and peer institutions.
They said under Prof Duncan Bentley’s leadership, the university had dramatically reduced student attrition, grown domestic student numbers by 15% and improved in its rankings and equity performance.
A Swinburne spokesperson said its surplus would be reinvested in “even better facilities, technology and campus upgrades, and ensuring our financial sustainability”.
The vice-chancellor of the University of Divinity, Prof James McLaren, took a pay cut of about $40,000, paid $210,000 to $219,999 annually amid a $289,000 deficit, the reports showed, as did La Trobe University’s vice-chancellor, Prof Theo Farrell.
Farrell, who commenced the role last year, earned between $860,000 and $869,999 in 2024, $100,000 less than the previous vice-chancellor. The salary of Monash University’s vice-chancellor was reduced from $1.5m to $1.1m.
A Monash University spokesperson said the reduction was principally due to the departure of the previous vice-chancellor.
Excluding philanthropic funds, donations and investment income, Monash University’s underlying result was a $6m deficit, an improvement on its $123.5m deficit in 2023.
