The chair of the state inquiry into universities has criticised the University of Newcastle's plan for executive pay rises as a "deeply provocative" and "insensitive" move following mounting staff discontent.
A summary of the May University Council meeting showed that the Chancellor's Committee had endorsed proposed salary increases for the executive leadership team.
Chancellor Patricia Forsythe also briefed the council on the salary of vice-chancellor Alex Zelinsky, noting that his performance was in the "exceeding expectations" category.
The meeting summary stated that performance against agreed criteria and keeping the vice-chancellor's salary close to the median of vice-chancellors' salaries was taken into consideration.
Ms Forysthe told the Newcastle Herald that Professor Zelinsky would receive a pay increase of 3.5 per cent.
Labor MP and the chair of the parliamentary inquiry into the university sector, Sarah Kaine, said the move seemed "audacious" after evidence from the University of Newcastle inquiry hearing.
"It is incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to all of the stakeholders who engaged and provided evidence to our inquiry," she said.
Dr Kaine said the pay rise announcement disregarded uncertainty staff and students had experienced due to cost-saving efforts by university management as well as concerns about work health and safety issues.
"They have been told that despite the public audit showing a $60 million surplus, there is somehow meant to be this absolute need to cut staff and courses," she said.
At the inquiry in April, vice-chancellor Alex Zelinsky and chief financial officer Paul McCubbin said the surplus figure was not an accurate representation of funds available for day-to-day operations, as it did not exclude restricted funds.
The university rolled out a slew of changes under their Business Improvement Program in a bid to save more than $20 million last year, including job cuts and course changes such as downgrading psychology from one of 13 schools to one of 96 disciplines.
Professor Zelinsky said while there were some redundancies, some fixed-term contracts ending and some new roles created, the total net job losses for ongoing staff was seven full-time equivalent positions.
Dr Kaine said the approved salary increases indicated a lack of sympathy to staff worries about job security, work intensification and a culture of fear at the university.
"These people have said that there's a financial crisis that they have overseen and yet they are awarding themselves more money based on exceeding expectations," she said.
"It doesn't meet the pub test, does it?"
University chancellor Ms Forsythe acknowledged that there was strong interest in the remuneration of senior university leaders.
"Executive remuneration is subject to a rigorous performance review process, with leaders assessed against clearly defined performance measures," she said.
"Any adjustments to remuneration are based on individual performance outcomes and are neither automatic nor guaranteed," she said.
The executive pay increases would come into effect once the in-principle enterprise agreement was finalised and the staff pay increases of 3.5 per cent had also been applied.
The Newcastle Herald understands that the ELT will receive pay increases ranging from 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent.
A former professor at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Kaine was leading the inquiry into university governance, which had also heard from UTS, University of Sydney, University of Wollongong and Macquarie University.
An interim report into UTS and University of Wollongong found "demonstrably inadequate" systems in terms of transparency, accountability and public interest.
Dr Kaine told the Newcastle Herald the common theme across universities interrogated so far was that there were a few people in charge of decision making with very low transparency.
While the inquiry was still sifting through information for the University of Newcastle, Dr Kaine said she was concerned about how many staff spoke about fear of speaking up, and management seemingly trying to undermine the veracity of research on psychosocial outcomes.
"Witness after witness spoke about the fear of their colleagues in raising issues," she said.
Professor Zelinsky said the university was a place where staff could raise concerns and share their perspectives without fear of reprisals.
"During my time as vice-chancellor, I have never sanctioned a staff member for exercising these rights, nor have I been aware of this occurring," he said.
"It is unfortunate that unfounded speculation and erroneous claims have further contributed to the impacts of our staff, particularly at a time when we are focused on supporting staff wellbeing."
Newcastle was ranked one of the worst universities in a nationwide survey into psychosocial safety in February. At the time, the university said that the timing of the census, in October, coincided with a challenging period of change at the institution.
Professor Zelinsky said he met with the lead researcher from the wellbeing survey to explore how the insights could be integrated into the university's next internal survey.
