Party’s over for highly paid university boffins as Labor seeks Senate probe

University vice-chancellors’ pay, lavish parties and office upgrades will be under scrutiny in a new Senate inquiry if parliament resumes next month.

Labor senator Tony Sheldon is pushing for a last-gasp Senate inquiry into university governance, before the next federal election.

University vice-chancellors’ pay, lavish parties and office upgrades will be under scrutiny in a new Senate inquiry if parliament resumes next month.

The Labor chairman of the Senate Education and Employment Committee, Senator Tony Sheldon, said he would seek its support for an inquiry into university governance, wage theft and spending on consultants.

“University vice-chancellors have questions to answer about the extraordinary range of governance issues that have arisen on their watch,’’ he said.

“There’s no other job in Australia where you can be paid so exorbitantly while performing so badly, with seemingly no consequences or accountability for the impact on university staff and students.

“The inquiry will urgently examine the spate of governance issues and concerns that have plagued universities in recent years.’’

Senator Sheldon is likely to win support from Green and Coalition senators, given their outspoken criticism of university governance, wage theft, financial management and sexual assaults on campus.

The push for a Senate inquiry follows the Albanese government’s establishment of an independent governance watchdog, as well as the first Student Ombudsman.

Senator Sheldon said wage theft across universities was nearing $400m.

He said universities had spent $734m on external consultants in 2023.

He said the proposed inquiry would examine “concerns regarding levels of vice chancellor remuneration and discretionary expenditure on executive office upgrades and parties’’, as well as “concerns about vice-chancellor conflicts of interest at numerous universities’’.

The push for an inquiry coincides with the resignation of NDIS minister Bill Shorten, who quit parliament to take up the job of vice-chancellor at the University of Canberra this week.

Mr Shorten has kept his salary secret, although the average pay for Australian vice-chancellors now exceeds $1m.

Long-time Labor minister Bill Shorten has quit politics to take up the role of Vice-Chancellor at the University of Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Senator Sheldon’s request for a Senate inquiry – which is backed by federal Education Minister Jason Clare – indicates that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may not call an early election, which is due by May.

Parliament is due to resume on February 4.

“I will seek to establish the inquiry prior to the upcoming parliamentary sitting fortnight, with a view to holding public hearings with vice-chancellors and other key stakeholders shortly after the parliament rises,’’ Senator Sheldon said on Thursday.

“A strong, well-managed higher education sector is essential to the wellbeing of staff and students, our economy and national interest.

“Australians deserve universities that put students and staff first, not the interests of university executives’’.

Universities Australia has welcomed the federal government’s establishment of an Expert Council on Community Governance.

“Good governance is crucial for good universities, and every opportunity to embrace best practice in the oversight of such complex organisations is to be welcomed,’’ chief executive Luke Sheehy said.

The new council will be chaired by Melinda Cilento, the chief executive of the Committee for Economic Development Australia (CEDA) and co-chair of Reconciliation Australia.

It also includes union heavyweight Sharan Burrow – a former president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) as well as the world’s biggest union organisation, the International Trade Union Federation (ITUF).