Merged Adelaide University vice-chancellor Professor Nicola Phillips embroiled in secrecy row over her lucrative pay package as current co-VC enjoys bumper salary rise
The lucrative pay awarded to the boss of the state’s new university is secret despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars funding the merged higher education institution.
The lucrative pay awarded to the boss of the state’s new university is secret despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars funding the merged higher education institution.
British academic Professor Nicola Phillips will start as Adelaide University’s vice chancellor and president a week after it opens on January 5.
But officials have refused to disclose her salary to head the new institution formed after a merger of the University of Adelaide and UniSA.
Amid staff and union outrage at the pay secrecy, which the university refused to be drawn on, her predecessor’s salary hike publicly emerged.
University of Adelaide chief Professor Peter Hoj, the new university’s co-vice chancellor with UniSA boss David Lloyd, earned a 24 per cent pay rise last year to between $1.3m and almost $1.314m, according to its annual report published last week.
Prof Hoj, whose 30-year career began as an Adelaide academic, was paid between $1.045m and almost $1.059m in 2023.
His remuneration was for “performance of duties” as Adelaide’s current VC and the new institution’s co-VC.
Sources claimed his pay bump, which was also disclosed to MPs, helped create salary parity with Prof Lloyd, who earned $1.303m in 2024.
Prof Lloyd, a scientist who started at Trinity College Dublin in 2005, earned $1.235 million in 2023 with a three-year bonus dubbed a “deferred benefit payment” worth $178,000, UniSA’s annual report, also tabled in state parliament, showed.
The pair will “wind-down” the “foundation institutions” until March.
Flinders University’s latest annual report states Vice-Chancellor Colin Stirling earned a nine per cent pay rise to between $1.43m and nearly $1.44m last year.
Premier Peter Malinauskas is paid $436,000 a-year while South Australia’s Governor Frances Adamson has an annual salary of $495,754.
Sources said the new university, which staff will formally work for on December 19, is facing internal rows about “harmonisation” of worker salaries, differing job classifications and discrepancy in management structures.
National Tertiary Education Union state secretary Andrew Miller, who is locked in staff pay talks, criticised the “unreasonable secrecy”.
“The university is a public entity, therefore all South Australians deserve to know how much the incoming VC is being paid,” he said.
Prof Phillips, Melbourne University’s provost who starts in SA on January 12, was unavailable for comment. An Adelaide spokesman refused to reveal her salary.
“Fair and reasonable remuneration for Professor Phillips was negotiated,” he said. He said this was “consistent” with advice its Adelaide University Transition Council received on “skills and experience”.
He said the council also determined Prof Hoj’s salary, which was “not dissimilar” to other Vice-Chancellor pay.
A UniSA spokeswoman said its council also set salaries while Prof Lloyd’s package reflected his dual duties at his university and new institution.
The contentious merger was green lit in July 2023 with support from both of its councils and almost $450m in taxpayer funds.
Adelaide’s financial statements show more than $657m in Australian Government “financial assistance”.
A Flinders spokeswoman said pay was “benchmarked” with experience, performance and global trends.
