Stuart McCutcheon's salary would be more than halved under a proposal from the Tertiary Education Union. Photo / File
University academics want to rein in the salaries paid to their bosses.
The academics' union, the Tertiary Education Union, says the highest salary at any university or polytechnic should be no more than five times the lowest salary.
The rule would mean more than halving the salary of
University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon from its current $710,000-$719,999 to $334,000 - five times a tutor's starting salary of $66,839.
Or, based on the lowest-paid non-academic salary of $33,302 for junior office staff, the vice-chancellor's salary could be only $166,510 - just above the current professor's salary of $153,841.
A report on funding tertiary education, released by the union today, also recommends a new system of "baseline funding" of tertiary institutions to replace the current roll-based funding, which causes fluctuations due to short-term changes in student numbers.
