Difficult comparison

Nevertheless, it is one thing to assert that university teachers here must be paid salaries comparable with those paid in other universities within the Commonwealth; it is quite another thing to arrive at a satisfactory basis of comparison. Mere comparison of salaries in equal currency units is by no means the only criterion.

Is the university professor in England on a salary or £2150 better or worse off than his New Zealand counterpart on the same salary? What is his standard of living on that sum? What are his opportunities for earning additional monies, e.g., by external examining (which often adds considerably to the income of senior English University teachers)? How does his superannuation scheme compare with that which operates in New Zealand? What additional value will he place on his freedom to move about among his colleagues in other English and Continental Universities, in comparison to the isolation of his counterpart in New Zealand?

All these questions and a number of others will have to be answered before it can be decided what amount of salary in New Zealand will be sufficient to tempt the man who is well in the running for a chair in his subject in England to take the plunge and come out to New Zealand. And what applies to professors applies also mutatis mutandis to other grades of staff.

It is significant that the British Colonial Universities generally offer not only higher salaries than the average English salaries for comparable grades of staff but also very generous provisions for travel and leave.

It is perhaps also significant that the present salaries in the main Australian Universities, converted to sterling, are higher than the corresponding average English salaries; though again questions of the relative cost and standard of living must be settled before any satisfactory comparison can be made.

Enough has been said to indicate both the importance for the university of being able to compete on the overseas market and the difficulty of arriving at a really satisfactory basis for comparison. But it must not be forgotten that university teachers will also be recruited from among New Zealanders; indeed, it is essential that a good proportion of the staff should be New Zealanders.

Of course, it must be ensured that the good New Zealander is paid a sufficient salary to prevent him from drifting overseas too readily; but it is equally important that within New Zealand the university shall be able to compote with other employing bodies for the best men and women to form its teaching staff.

For this reason university salaries cannot be completely dissociated from the New Zealand wage and salary structure; not only must the university not lag behind overseas university salaries, it must not lag behind the general level of salaries paid to persons of similar experience and training to university teachers within New Zealand.

This lag is most likely to occur in inflationary periods such as the present, and especially when inflation in New Zealand is progressing at a more rapid rate than inflation overseas.

Economists have asserted, for example, that during the period 1961-1955 inflation in New Zealand was more rapid than inflation in England. If this is correct a simple parity of salaries with English salaries throughout the period in question might not have been in the best interests of the university. This consideration, too, may account for the current disparity between Australian and English salaries.

But a further factor occurs here, which university teachers may dislike but which they cannot ignore. This is that, since the majority of university finance comes from the Government, no Government can be expected to view with favour a movement of university salaries which puts them completely out of line with the general wage and salary structure of New Zealand, and particularly with the general wage and salary structure of the State services.