Western Australia’s public universities appear to be facing the same pressures as the rest of the economy, with steep employment costs eroding rises in grants and student income.
Western Australia’s public universities appear to be facing the same pressures as the rest of the economy, with steep employment costs eroding rises in grants and student income.
Three of the four public universities – Edith Cowan University, University of Western Australia and Murdoch University – suffered falls in their equivalent of an operating profit amid significant jumps in the cost of employee benefits in the year ending December 31.
In contrast, Curtin University of Technology posted its second consecutive significant rise in net operating result, to $74.8 million from $21.9 million in the previous corresponding period, after employee costs rose just 1.2 per cent to $250.2 million in calendar year 2006.
In its recently published annual report, Edith Cowan University reported an operating result attributable to the university of $113.1 million, a figure inflated by more than $100 million in asset revaluations. ECU’s operating result of $11.1 million was down from $22.2 million the previous year.
UWA reported $32.5 million net operating result compared with $41 million previously, and Murdoch revealed a net operating result of $6.4 million last year, down from $8.2 million.
Apart from employee costs (which were up 7.6 per cent at ECU, 9 per cent at Murdoch and 13 per cent at UWA), another notable variable on the rise across most of these public institutions was consulting and professional fees, as well as the expense of contract work.
The salary changes of WA’s public vice-chancellors did not appear to directly reflect the institutions’ financial performances.
The highest paid officer or councillor at a WA public university in 2006 was $675,000 at Murdoch University, where Professor John Yovich presides. That was up nearly 20 per cent since 2005, and an increase of almost 60 per cent since 2004.
Based on the highest paid salaries at other universities, UWA rewarded its vice-chancellor, Professor Alan Robson, with a 14 per cent pay rise in 2006, taking his total remuneration to $555,000.
Edith Cowan University vice-chancellor Professor Kerry Cox earned $375,000 in 2006, having replaced former vice-chancellor Millicent Poole in March last year, while newcomer to Curtin University of Technology, vice-chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket, received $335,000 last year, having been appointed last August after six months acting in the role.
Aside from the financial aspects, a number of internal and external benchmarks are used by the universities to evaluate performance, such as the share of first preferences received from applicants through the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre.
In 2006, Curtin had the highest number of first preferences, with 32.4 per cent of the TISC pool, followed by UWA (31.1 per cent), ECU (20.2 per cent) and Murdoch (16.3 per cent).
Research income and grant funding, both relative to the number of academic staff at a university, are other key performance indicators used.
UWA headed the list in 2005 with regard to both research income and allocation of Australian competitive grant funds, receiving $122,610 in research income per full-time equivalent (FTE) academic staff, and $64,302 in competitive grant funding per FTE academic staff member.
Murdoch ranked second on both measures, with $64,415 and $19,498 respectively, followed by Curtin ($40,524 and $9,611) and ECU ($22,682 and $4,206).
There are also international surveys that rate Australian universities, such as the Shanghai Jiao Tong University world rankings.
The university’s 2006 rankings of Australian universities placed UWA equal third with the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland, while Murdoch was ranked equal 12th with Flinders University, James Cook University, the University of New England (central NSW) and the University of Tasmania.
Both UWA and Murdoch were ranked within the top 500 universities internationally, while Curtin and ECU were ranked outside.
One of the few national surveys used as a benchmark by most universities is the graduate destination survey (GDS), compiled each year by national body, Graduate Careers Australia.
The survey measures student outcomes using a number of criteria, such as employment status after graduation and desired mode of employment.
The 2006 GDS survey found 80.2 per cent of UWA students that graduated in 2005 were in full-time employment at April 30 2006.
Curtin University of Technology had 59.3 per cent of students in full-time employment, while Murdoch University had slightly less at 56.9 per cent.
Students in part-time employment were highest at Murdoch University (18.1 per cent), followed by Curtin (12.4 per cent) and UWA (7.8 per cent).
However, certain criteria are given more weight according to different universities.
For instance, Murdoch University rates the ‘graduates in their work mode of choice’ as the most valuable indicator of student outcomes, given the university’s more variable course mix, large mature age student population and high percentage of students with multiple caring responsibilities.
According to the 2006 survey, 84.3 per cent of Murdoch students who graduated in 2005 and were available for work at March 2006 were employed in their work mode of choice, while 88 per cent of graduates at UWA were in a similar position.
Curtin and ECU did not provide their ratings on this measure.
