The University of Sydney has set the earnings of its new leader below the A$1?million (?556,000) mark, in a sign that seven-figure vice-chancellor pay packets could be a thing of the past.

The university said?that Mark Scott, who assumes office in July, would earn a base salary of A$840,000. With A$142,800 in superannuation, his ¡°total fixed package¡± will reach A$982,800, although he could also pocket a bonus worth up to 20 per cent.

Nevertheless, his income will fall well short of predecessor Michael Spence¡¯s pay of?more than A$1.6 million in 2019, the last year for which institutional accounts are available ¨C and the year that the average Australian vice-chancellor¡¯s remuneration rose above A$1 million.

The lowest 2019 income of any institutional head in the Group of Eight, which includes Sydney, was about A$1.1 million. But most Australian university bosses took 20 per cent pay cuts last year amid the pandemic.

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Mr Scott declined to say whether he thought seven-figure salaries were inappropriate for university leaders, but acknowledged that the topic generated debate. He said that Sydney had a new remuneration framework that covered the vice-chancellor¡¯s role, and aimed to reflect the complexity of leading a ¡°large, complex, multifaceted, multibillion-dollar corporation¡±.

Mr Scott has headed the New South Wales Department of Education since 2016. Before that, he spent a decade as managing director of the national public broadcaster, the ABC.

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While governing council members say that universities must offer corporate-scale salaries to attract internationally competitive candidates, the evidence for salary as a strong recruitment motivator is unconvincing.

Dr Spence, who was Australia¡¯s highest paid vice-chancellor in 2019, now earns less than half that figure as UCL president. Murdoch University vice-chancellor Eeva Leinonen, whose earnings nudged A$1 million in 2019, has accepted the presidency of Ireland¡¯s Maynooth University ¨C a role with the considerably smaller salary of €191,278 (?163,792) in 2018-19, according to Maynooth¡¯s latest financial statement.

Sydney¡¯s interim vice-chancellor Stephen Garton was grilled about his salary during a?Senate inquiry?into underpayment at universities. He said that he earned?more than A$900,000, having taken a 33 per cent pay cut when he accepted the role.

Green senator Mehreen Faruqi asked whether it was ¡°fair and reasonable¡± for Australian vice-chancellors to be among the world¡¯s highest paid while they presided over ¡°rampant casualisation¡± and staff underpayment. Professor Garton said that it was impossible to mount a convincing defence of vice-chancellors¡¯ salaries in the Australian political context, because of critics¡¯ implicit ¡°assumptions¡±.

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¡°Why is Australia so obsessed with vice-chancellor salaries? Why is the UK so obsessed? [In the] US, it¡¯s completely irrelevant. The president of Harvard gets paid a humongous amount and no one ever bats an eyelid. The presidents of large public land-grant universities in the US get paid very significant amounts. Their advantage is [that] the basketball and football coaches get paid more than the president,¡± Professor Garton said.

Professor Garton said there was a widespread view that university leaders should earn amounts akin to the heads of government departments. ¡°But we only get 27 per cent of our budget from the commonwealth government direct. We are large businesses¡­and we get paid much less than CEOs of large public companies.¡±

A social historian who has authored a book about Australian welfare recipients, Professor Garton said that he had experienced the low end of university pay scales decades ago as a casual academic and an animal shelter attendant in Sydney¡¯s veterinary teaching hospital. ¡°[I was the] lowest paid member of staff ever in the history of The University of Sydney,¡± he said.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com