Trouble in paradise

ASEE Prism, Jan 2003

BRIEFINGS

BIG MOUTHS, GREEN ACRES, SOUNDING OFF

NEW ZEALAND-This South Pacific nation's universities are increasingly worried about their ability to attract top administrators. Proud of the high standards set by its education system, New Zealand has supplied engineers, scientists, and other professionals to the United States, Britain, and most often, neighboring Australia for years. With education growing as an important New Zealand export industry, foreign students represent a major source of revenue.

Of New Zealand's eight universities, two are seeking new vice-chancellors-a position similar to that of a college president in the United States. Two more universities are expected to launch searches in the next year as incumbents retire. Vice chancellors at two universities-including Massey University, which has an engineering school with an international reputation-recently left for greener pastures in Australia. While annual salary packages of around $119,000 are generous by local standards, they look paltry compared with what administrators earn in the United States or even in Australia, where New Zealand academics are highly sought after. For example, the salary of John W. Shumaker, the University of Tennessee's new president, is well over $700,000.

As homegrown candidates with the necessary expertise become hard to find, New Zealand's schools have had to go headhunting offshore. School officials believe that lifestyle factors-such as a peaceful environment, low costs and high living standards, good school systems, and leafy British-style campuses-are their strongest selling points. They hope these factors will offset the higher pay that administrators could earn elsewhere and point to the Cold War era when New Zealand's peaceful image outweighed puny pay scales and enticed substantial numbers of American academics to settle into jobs on campuses framed by scenic, sheep-studded rolling hills.