Because We are Worth It

The life of a University head is a tough one, dealing angry layabout students who refuse to pay any form of fees. Still, figures today show that it is pretty well remunerated. The top 50 earners in our universities take away around €10m a year. The highest earner isn’t even a Univeristy head – rather it is;

UCD vice president for research, Professor Des Fitzgerald. His overall pay package is potentially worth up to €495,000-a-year — 15 times the average industrial wage.

However, his package for last year was restricted to €409,000 after a performance-related bonus of up to €86,000 was withheld when UCD decided not to issue bonuses for 2008 and 2009.

While I am not an economist, I was lucky to attend the college that these superstars are reforming. To say their managerial ideology is unpopular is an understatement. It is amazing that off the top of my head I can name four of the main university principals as well as two recently departed ones – such is their notereity for their reforming zeal and capacity to extract princely sums from the exchequer for the privilege.

It doesnt help that Hugh et. al. are on €200,000 + and those who are being ‘reformed’ …

In contrast to Prof Fitzgerald’s package, the pay scale for a lecturer at UCD ranges from just €54,000 to €87,000.

Of those on “exceptional salaries”, 10 are based at UCD, with four people employed by the university having more lucrative packages than its president, Dr Hugh Brady.

Last year Dr Brady received pay of €220,000 and an allowance of over €12,000.

So what to do? It now looks increasingly true that there are coteries at the top of most industries (public and private) who have made hay in their remuneration over the recent tiger years. Not least TDs, Ministers, bankers, senior civil servants etc.

As Kevin O Rourke highlights over at The Irish Economy;

one needs to ask what price Irish universities need to pay to get great academics, assuming that they want them. Presumably that price is falling rapidly, for several reasons. First, a little bit of googling suffices to make it clear that the academic job market is collapsing in the United States.

…

The state just can’t afford to pay enormous salaries any more. Moreover, there are obvious political considerations that can’t be ignored. Given that people at the bottom are going to see their net income fall, the case for a cap on all wages paid for in whole or in part by the taxpayer is becoming increasingly compelling. Many posts ago, I suggested a cap of 200K, but that now seems much too generous. 150K should be enough for anyone, and if people want to chance their luck on the national or international market places, good luck to them.