Are vice-chancellors enjoying fat-cat pay levels while students rack up debts?

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. With public attention drawn to the inflated salaries of university leaders, University World News carries a Special Report this week on the subject. Frances Tsakonas suggests a revolutionary financial model for universities, where staff and students get to share some of the surplus funds of universities rather than vice-chancellors being handed fat pay cheques. Brendan O’Malley reports on staggering findings by the UK’s University and College Union that at most British universities the vice-chancellor either sits on the committee that sets their pay or is allowed to attend its meetings. And Kristen Lyons and Richard Hill reveal that Dame Glynis Breakwell, who resigned as the UK’s top-paid vice-chancellor after a furore over her salary, earned less than most of her Australian peers.
   In Commentary, Anamika Srivastava suggests that India should take lessons from Asia in its quest to develop world-class universities and should also reflect realistically on how Indian universities can be improved. Jonathan Nicholls says that while the UK is reviewing higher education funding, they should seriously consider the funding and structure of a system that can provide the kind of skills that will be needed for the future. Jane Knight encourages the global higher education sector to use knowledge diplomacy as a tool to address global challenges through enhanced relations between countries.
   In World Blog this week, Eric Fredua-Kwarteng and Samuel Kwaku Ofosu suggest that African university leaders put pressure on their governments to grant universities the autonomy they require to find solutions to the crisis of exploding enrolments on the continent.
   In Features, Jan Petter Myklebust reports on plans by Utrecht University in the Netherlands to tackle key societal challenges in a multidisciplinary way with other social partners, while Stephen Coan reports on the launch of the Africa Evidence Leadership Award to recognise those who have increased awareness of evidence-informed decision-making in Africa. More...