The ACT government wants the salaries of the people at the very top of universities to be reviewed by the federal government because payments "have grown substantially in recent years".
Its call comes as the union at the University of Canberra started a poster campaign on campus to try to get answers about why former vice-chancellor Paddy Nixon got a $1.8 million package before leaving in unexplained circumstances.
An ACT government spokesperson questioned whether vice-chancellors' salaries "were in line with public expectations".
The UC annual report revealed that Professor Nixon got a 71 per cent rise in his remuneration to $1.8 million in 2023 compared with just over $1 million in 2022.
The university has denied that there was any kind of special "golden handshake" payment before his departure in January.
The University of Canberra was set up under ACT government legislation but the ACT government has no control over its spending or how much its leaders get paid. It does not fund the university.
But a spokesperson added that "there is a broader question to be asked around vice-chancellors' salaries and whether they are in line with community expectations".
The federal government is currently looking at how and whether to reform universities under its Universities Accord. The ACT government spokesperson said that pay at the top of universities was "something that the ACT Government expects to be looked at".
Top pay at the University of Canberra is much higher than that at the Australian National University which ranks much higher in league tables of universities.
But Professor Nixon's remuneration of $1.8 million for 2023 compares with ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt's $852,242. When he first took the job, it was reported that he actually negotiated a cut in salary.
The National Tertiary Education Union sees Professor Nixon's remuneration of $1.8 million as part of a wider problem of top pay in universities.
"We're calling on UC to reveal what really happened around the departure of Professor Paddy Nixon," the NTEU's leader in the ACT, Lachlan Clohesy, said.
He was putting up posters around the university with Professor Nixon's face on them alongside the slogan "What really happened?"
"We know that his remuneration was the most of any vice-chancellor in any Australian university ever," Dr Clohesy said.
"But this is bigger than that. It's about the whole sector. It's about transparency, accountability and the proper use of public funds.
"The wider concern is that public money is going into university and it's desperately needed but we can't have money going into universities if it's only going to find its way into the pockets of vice-chancellors.
