How can vice-chancellor compensation be justified? Evidence from New Zealand

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Authors

Houqe, Muhammad Nurul
Marasigan, Alva
De Villiers, Charl Johannes

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley

Abstract

Vice-chancellors' salaries have been criticised in the media and examined by scholars. Therefore, we examine whether vice-chancellors' compensation can be explained by performance, job size/complexity, and/or the incumbent's characteristics/abilities. Our sample consists of all New Zealand universities' vice-chancellors' pay from 2010 to 2023. We find that university characteristics (higher university rankings, having a medical school, and more students), university governance (larger size of the senior leadership team), and vice-chancellor characteristics (being female, older, and being a New Zealander) are associated with higher vice-chancellor compensation. The prior literature has largely ignored the added complexity of a medical school.

Description

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data are available from the authors upon request.

Keywords

Executive compensation, New Zealand, Senior leadership team, Tertiary Education Commission, University governance, University raking, Vice-chancellor compensation, SDG-08: Decent work and economic growth

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-08:Decent work and economic growth

Citation

Houqe, M.N., Marasigan, A. & De Villiers, C. 2025, 'How can vice-chancellor compensation be justified? Evidence from New Zealand', Accounting and Finance, doi : 10.1111/acfi.70019.