Flinders U to pay members of council

A bill to amend the university’s act, is in the SA parliament

It would empower Flinders U’s Council to, “from time to time, determine that a member of the Council be remunerated.”

The University says this is needed because, “university council members like other board members carry significant responsibilities and risk of personal liability, and remuneration reflects the increasing complexity of governing council roles and considerable time commitments.”

To which the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union responds; “universities exist to serve the public interest and council members should serve council for no other reason than to serve the public good. Personal profit should not come into it. This legislative change appears to signal the further shift of the university away from being a not-for-profit education provider to a fully-fledged corporate entity, with a board of directors, director’s fees, and corporate allowances.”

Flinders U is setting no precedent – the university states 33 universities, “have the ability to remunerate their board members.”

But which ones and by how much? The Flinders U bill states council, “may fix different amounts of remuneration for different members of the council according to the office held by the member or any other factor the council considers relevant.”

Heaven forfend that council members ever get the idea that while they are all equal, some are more equal than others.


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