Padding the seat of learning
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AT a time when third-level education institutions are under scrutiny, when hundreds of redundancies are coming and the reintroduction of college tuition fees is a distinct possibility, the extraordinary levels of pay for some academics was bound to draw attention.
More than €10m goes to the top 50 earners in our colleges. They received an average of €200,000 in pay, expenses and various bonuses last year. One individual received almost €500,000. In recessionary times, the recipients of salaries which are many multiples of the average industrial wage, tend to find it more difficult to justify their pay.
Radio and TV presenters talk about the huge advertising revenues they pull in with their talent and charm. Bankers point to their superhuman expertise. The more highly paid civil servants refer their critics to the benchmarking system. Denizens of the Dail, whose salaries far exceed those of their equivalents in much richer economies, neither bother to explain nor apologise but simply imply that it's because they're worth it.
For their part, top academics for whom "exceptional salaries" have been approved by the Higher Education Authority, insist they could earn much more money in the private sector, an argument shared by top civil servants, and one which is as difficult to refute as it is to sustain. A spokesman for university teachers put it rather well when he pointed out: "It's ridiculous; the more you demonstrate your lack of commitment to staying in Ireland, the more you're rewarded."
Like the average bank worker who has had to bear the displeasure of customers across the counter in recent times, ordinary university staff must seethe at the massive disparities between their relatively modest earnings and those at the top, many of whom are administrators rather than teachers.
Towards the end of last year, when the Government was growing curious about work practices in universities, and particularly the rapid growth in the number of senior, well-paid administrative posts, the then Minister for Education observed wryly that he looked forward to the day when the most experienced educators would actually be in the lecture hall "from time to time".
As our education correspondent points out, in such circumstances, it is hard to take pleas for more funding for higher education seriously.
