Should Australia go Dutch?

There has been an interesting series of posts on university reform over at Club Troppo by Paul Frijters.

They mostly focus on the difficulties of changing Australian universities. But this post looks to something implemented in the Netherlands as a reform that the federal government as the ones holding the purse strings can implement quite easily. “Australia could take a leaf out of the recent reforms in the Netherlands and instigate a maximum remuneration for everyone in the university sector. The rule of thumb the Dutch have hit upon is 130% of the pay of a government minister, roughly equal to 350,000 AUS (see here for an explanation in English). This is now mandated as the maximum income not just for all civil servants, but all semi-government institutions too, including universities and hospitals. At the same time, all other forms of compensation were outlawed, including any KPIs, options, consultancy, etc.”

Click here to read the full article.