The University of Canberra has denied giving its former vice-chancellor a special payout when he left abruptly in January.
The remuneration to Paddy Nixon rose from just over $1 million in 2022 to $1.8 million in 2023 but the university's chancellor has emailed staff saying the extra $800,000 was not just a rise in pay but also "accrued entitlements".
"There was no 'golden handshake'," Lisa Paul said.
The university was not saying what those "accrued entitlements" were. They may sometimes be an agreed pay-out if a contract of employment ends early.
Lisa Paul took over as UC chancellor at the start of the year just as Professor Nixon left. The vice-chancellor in a university is responsible for its day-to-day leadership while the chancellor usually takes on a more ceremonial and supervisory role.
The National Tertiary Education Union is seeking more information. "UC's response raises more questions than it answers," Lachlan Clohesy, head of the NTEU in the ACT, said.
In its initial statement after the question arose, the university said, "Vice-chancellor salary and entitlements are confidentially negotiated with University Council. The university will not be commenting further."
It now has commented further with the "no golden handshake" denial.
Professor Nixon resigned suddenly in January for unspecified reasons, beyond saying they were "personal".
"The vice-chancellor's remuneration package raises serious questions about governance at the University of Canberra," the NTEU's Dr Clohesy said.
"We were told he resigned for personal reasons but this figure suggests a significant payout. Was this a golden handshake at the taxpayers' expense?"
Prof Nixon didn't respond to requests for comment. His LinkedIn profile said he had taken a job as "chief strategist" at a tech company called CareerVitae just after he left the University of Canberra.
The union's national leader compared Prof Nixon's remuneration with that of the prime minister, whose pay of around $600,000 was one-third that of the former UC vice-chancellor's package.
"It doesn't make any sense for vice-chancellors to earn so much more than the prime minister does," said Alison Barnes, president of the NTEU.
The union calculated Prof Nixon's final remuneration was the highest of any vice-chancellor in Australia.
The NTEU said Prof Nixon's $1.8 million was higher than that of the vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne ($1.4 million) and the University of Sydney ($1.2 million). The remuneration of the ANU's then-vice-chancellor, Brian Schmidt, in 2023 was $852,242 (the salary of his successor has not been published).
Prof Nixon joined the University of Canberra in March 2020 after leaving his post as vice-chancellor and president of Ulster University in Northern Ireland (the same titles he then took in Canberra).
He came with a glowing reputation, both in academia and in business, collaborating with Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Intel (as a research director).
He had held academic positions at Trinity College and University College, both in Dublin, the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, the University of Tasmania and Ulster University. He also worked at the California Institute of Technology.
The NTEU is annoyed Prof Nixon's remuneration from the taxpayer came as funding for universities was tightened.
"Vice-chancellors' salaries across Australia are completely out of step with community expectations," national union head Dr Barnes said.
"Despite these enormous pay packets, our universities have endured $382 million of wage theft, two-thirds of the workforce are employed insecurely and we see workloads that risk the health and safety of staff."
