In societies around the world and particularly in developing countries which are experiencing severe faculty shortages, how should academic salaries be determined? Does the sum paid monthly to a professor constitute his/her full remuneration? Our research on international comparisons of academic salaries found major variations between countries. Differences also exist within countries — by rank, discipline, and other factors. In some countries (such as India), salaries are determined by an individual’s age, length of employment, rank, and often by civil service rules — without much cognizance of productivity or academic accomplishment. Indeed, in much of the world, academics are paid solely on the basis of their length of service and rank. In other countries, particularly in their newer private universities, salary structures are far from transparent.

Among most full-time academic staff in North America, Western Europe, much of Asia, and Australia, salaries paid by universities constitute the bulk of their total income.  Relatively modest additional income is earned through consulting, part-time teach-ing, or other such activity. Academic remuneration, particularly if there are two income earners in a family, provides an adequate if not lavish middle-class lifestyle commensurate with national standards. Our research indicates that while academic salaries vary considerably, in the regions mentioned above, full-time academics can survive on their incomes from employer varsities.

This is not the case in Latin America, most of Africa, or the countries of central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In these countries, full-time academic salaries generally do not constitute sufficient income, and academics must earn top-up money from other sources. Therefore some professors hold more than one academic position. Indeed the growing private higher education sector in many countries is staffed largely by ‘moonlighting’ professors from inadequately funded public universities. Others take to offering consultancy services, own businesses, and a significant number undertake private tutoring or activities bordering on corrupt academic practice.

For a relatively small minority of academics, the standard remuneration offered by most universities is insufficient to retain them in academe or, in some cases, even within their native countries. These academics are research-active faculty members found in all fields but more so in the sciences than humanities, mostly located in top universities, and in ‘hot’ faculties such as management, information technology, or biotechnology, where salaries outside universities are very high. Such academic stars form a modest proportion of faculties in any country, ranging from 2-10 percent of the professoriate. Indeed, without this group little research would be conducted and universities would have no chance in international rankings.

How are academic high-flyers paid in the bureaucratic and rather flat salary environment of academe? For a start, in a few countries and frequently in private higher education, remuneration structures are relatively flexible, and it is possible to pay star professors significantly higher direct salaries than the rank and file.

Research-active professors tend to teach less. By providing them more time to focus on research they are often compensated with time instead of money. It’s also common for professors to be directly paid by their universities for research production. In some countries, professors are paid by their university or a government agency for each article they publish in a prestigious journal. Where professors are able to obtain research grants from external sources they are often paid a part of the grant income. Research-active faculty in some countries are also compensated by government agencies set up to boost incomes, often as members of organisations of researchers.

While these and other arrangements create inequalities in compensation among professors and universities within an academic system, they are necessary to reward research-active faculty.

For many reasons, the incomes earned by academics do not always coincide with the salary provided by the varsity. Universities sometimes try to boost compensation to meet high urban living costs and keep professors from leaving their institutions for higher paying jobs elsewhere in the economy. Some institutions, such as Makerere University in Uganda, have established extra academic programmes to let professors earn extra income by teaching additional high-fee-paying students. Many academics earn extra money on their own by consulting, holding appointments in more than one university, or other schemes.

Non-salary income provides, in the cases of research-active professors, a necessary way of rewarding highly productive faculty. Other extra-salary compensation supplements unrealistically low pay. However, certain forms of such compensation may lead to corruption, unfair advantages, or other problems. Often, salaries are insufficient to attract and retain the best scholars and scientists, and attractive remuneration schemes are absolutely necessary to reward productive academics in complex universities with global aspirations.
(Dr. Philip Altbach is director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, USA)