Southern Cross University academics want to 'Fix pay inequalities' and 'Make education the priority again' - but shouldn't education have ALWAYS been the the priority ?

Apparently not.

The recent furore over the UK's highest-paid vice-chancellor, Bath University's Dame Glynis Breakwell, exposes much that is wrong with higher education academic pay.

The case has drawn public attention to the inflated salaries of vice-chancellors and the huge wage disparities between managers and low-paid casual academics.

In some cases, vice-chancellors in Australia take home more in one week than a casual employee earns in a year.

Professor Greg Craven at the Australian Catholic University earning $1.25 million, just behind Professor Craven was Professor Ian Jacobs at UNSW on $1.22 million.

The lowest remuneration went to the vice-chancellor at Southern Cross University ($500,000).

Bummer - I know how hard it is to get by on only $10k a week !

Interestingly, the majority of vice-chancellors in Australia are male, and on the whole earn significantly more than their female counterparts.

The best paid vice-chancellor was Sydney University's Professor Michael Spence, who received $1.4 million, after a 56 per cent increase over five years.