Groper V-C Peter Rathjen’s high-flying travel bill

Former Uni of Adelaide vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen amassed a $304,000 travel bill in his short tenure — almost as much as his payout.

Former University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen.

Former University of Adelaide vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen amassed a $304,000 travel bill in his short tenure — almost as much as he received in a payout ahead of being found guilty of sexual misconduct by South Australia’s anti-corruption commission.

UA has released full details of Professor Rathjen’s domestic and international travel bill, showing he took 47 trips in two years before being grounded by the pandemic in March. His international travel included trips to France, Finland, China, Singapore, the UK, Canada, The Netherlands, Morocco, Italy and Germany, with several trips to the US, for a total inter­national flight bill of $140,000.

The figures do not include details of where he dined or stayed at university expense but they suggest he ate and slept well.

In August 2018 alone, he spent $16,434 on meals and accommodation while overseas, and $8547 while abroad in November 2019.

UA on Tuesday defended Professor Rathjen’s expenditure as being “booked and taken in accordance with the university’s travel procedures”.

“His travel served a range of strategic needs for the university and the state,” a spokesman said. “Many of his visits were aimed at building partnerships and support for the university’s world-class research and industry links in fields such as defence and security, energy and resources, science and innovation, and agriculture, as well as ongoing relations with key alumni networks.”

All of Professor Rathjen’s international travel was approved by the then chancellor, former SA governor Kevin Scarce, who resigned this year ahead of an ICAC inquiry that defended his handling of the scandal but found Professor Rathjen guilty of “serious misconduct” over groping two female UA employees and conducting an illicit affair with another.

Professor Rathjen resigned for ill-health on July 20 ahead of the release of the ICAC statement, receiving a $326,400 payout.

UA chancellor Cathy Branson initially defended that payout as in keeping with the terms of his contract and made at a time when the university had no knowledge of what the ICAC report would say.

She since revealed in a briefing to UA staff that the university was seeking legal advice on whether it could claw back some or all of that money on the basis of the behaviour subsequently identified by the ICAC report.

Staff at UA remain unimpressed with the manner in which Professor Rathjen was both appointed and dismissed by the university’s governing council.

The Australian reported last month that a group of senior academics had formed a group to push for change and demand answers as to the management of Professor Rathjen and issues of transparency and accountability.

UA has moved to address those concerns with a series of information sessions where the university leadership has given staff, students, past students and benefactors a chance to hear directly from Ms Branson and senior governing council members, with questions submitted in advance on all aspects of the scandal.

Some staff remain unhappy with the process, with The Australian seeing an email this week from one senior academic to his senior colleagues bemoaning the handling of the matter.

“All the focus is quite deliberately on the previous vice-chancellor but the problem is much deeper than that,” it reads.

“We don’t just need a new vice-chancellor, we need a major turnover in our senior management and the university council.”