University vice-chancellors threatening fee increases next year have reaped pay rises of more than 40 per cent since 1997.
State Services Commission figures show the growth in university heads' pay packages between 1997 and 1999 has far outstripped average annual pay increases.
One of the country's highest paid vice-chancellors, Otago's Graeme Fogelberg,increased his total pay by 45 per cent, from a salary band of between $200,000 and $210,000 in 1997 to a 1999 high of $290,000 to $300,000.
Victoria University increased its chief executive's salary band from between $200,000 and $210,000 in 1997 to between $280,000 and $290,000 in 1999, a rise of 40 per cent.
Canterbury University's vice-chancellor, Daryl Le Grew, who along with Dr Fogelberg was the highest-paid vice-chancellor in 1999, was paid 38 per cent more than his predecessor, Albert Brownlie, who earned between $210,000 and $220,000 in 1997.
The 38 per cent jump compares with about a 6 per cent wage rise for Canterbury University academic staff in the same period, and an average yearly wage increase across all sectors of 7.5 per cent.
Association of University Staff organiser Marty Braithwaite said the vice-chancellors' pay increases set a particularly bad example. "It's absolutely outrageous that chief executives in the state sector generally are still getting these market sector salaries when the rest of the sector is so constrained, especially now."
Professor Le Grew cautioned against a literal reading of the State Services Commission figures, which represented a total package including superannuation and performance allowances that were not necessarily paid out.
New Zealand University Students' Association co-president Andrew Campbell said that given the vice-chancellors' high salaries it was too simple for them to blame the Government for the deteriorating state of universities.
Student fees could jump by up to 27 per cent next year if universities reject a proposed 2.6 per cent increase in Government funding in exchange for freezing student fees for a second year.NZPA
Tertiary institutions have objected to the deal, which they say fails to meet the cost of inflation and will cost them millions, and university vice-chancellors have vowed to unanimously advise their governing councils to reject it.
"We would be appalled to see any increased fees going into increasing registry and vice-chancellors' salaries," Mr Campbell said.
"In fact, we'd want to see a decrease in those areas."
