QUT vice chancellor Margaret Sheil’s jaw-dropping $120k pay rise

The massive salaries of Queensland’s major university vice-chancellors have been revealed with one receiving a whopping $120k pay rise - and that’s without her eye-watering bonus.

QUT vice chancellor Margaret Sheil has received a huge pay rise.

Our universities fashion the leaders of tomorrow, and there’s no argument that those who lead our universities should be fairly compensated.

But we were more than a bit surprised to read the latest Queensland University of Technology’s annual report showing vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil’s hefty $120,000 bump to her base salary last year – an almost 12 per cent increase – to $1.138m.

Shiel is one of Queensland’s top paid VCs.

She actually missed out on her performance bonus with her total remuneration including superannuation of $1.169m – about $30,000 less than last year when she received a $151,000 bonus.

That’s a very healthy salary in a partly government-funded and regulated sector, and is more than double the Premier’s salary of $476,323, which comes into effect in the middle of the year following an 11 per cent pay rise to Queensland politicians.

And when you consider that the average QUT academic salary ranges from $110,000 to $150,000 a year, Shiel is getting a heck of a lot.

QUT VC Margaret Sheil’s eye-watering compensation has been revealed. Picture: Glenn Hunt

She has been at the top at QUT since 2018, has the runs on the board academically in her chosen field, and in the past was the provost at The University of Melbourne and chief executive of the Australian Research Council.

And she’s not alone.

At the University of Queensland, vice-chancellor Deborah Terry’s total remuneration was $1.154m in 2024, and Griffith University vice-chancellor Professor Carolyn Evans was paid $981,000.

To put it into a worldwide context, the Australian Institute of Research says Australia’s university vice-chancellors are among the highest-paid in the world.

The question is, does all that salary deliver better outcomes for students?

Sheil will have her work cut out for her – as do others in the top university jobs – with overseas student numbers at QUT falling by 2 per cent in 2024 as the federal government cut international student visa numbers.

QUT has been facing headwinds. Picture: Dan Peled

The annual QUT report says the university has made another underlying operating loss and margins were in negative territory for the third year running, however, it has improved.

A major reason for that was the push for more wholly online courses, which require less resources and an overall changing nature of study patterns and preferences.

It’s a pattern being repeated in most stretched higher learning institutions.

That’s Confidence

Sentinel Property Group’s chief experience and former Brumby’s bakery chain co-founder Michael ‘The Professor’ Sherlock cannot keep the smile off his dial.

He reckons there’s never been a better time to invest or, for that matter, be in business, despite the dark clouds of economic uncertainty.

Sentinel is currently capital raising to complete the $132m purchase of the Green Square South office tower in Fortitude Valley, within the 2032 Brisbane Olympics precinct.

Sherlock says having fun is a major part of the work culture at Sentinel, and a contingent of managers is this week on one of their regular overseas jaunts to the annual international Shopping Malls Summit, which this year is in Hong Kong.

He says there will also be a side trip to Shenzhen, in southeastern China, a modern metropolis and shopping destination that links Hong Kong with the Chinese mainland.

Sentinel Property Group’s chief experience officer, Michael Sherlock.