The Senate’s Education and Employment Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the quality of governance at Australian higher education providers has slammed the leadership of the country’s university bosses.

The report found “numerous participants raised concerns about a lack of transparency in university decision-making”.

Among the recommendations, the report’s authors said universities must publicly disclose “details of all spending on consultants, including the purpose of each consultancy and the extent to which the capacity exists to perform that function within the institution”.

It was recently revealed the University of Technology Sydney spent, on average, $45 million a year on consultants.

The report also found “Australian university vice-chancellors are among the highest paid in the world, with salaries more than quadrupling since 1985”.

“The committee recommends that the Australian Government work with the Remuneration Tribunal and states and territories to devise a mechanism or framework of classification structures and remuneration ranges to determine vice-chancellors’ and senior executives’ remuneration. University councils would retain responsibility for setting the vice-chancellors’ and senior executives’ remuneration, within the appropriate classification and remuneration range,” read the report.

CPSU NSW General Secretary Stewart Little said the report showed that cutting jobs to meet budgetary restraints was the wrong strategy.

“Unaccountable decision-making, excess use of consultants and too much money spent at the top are all the reasons for financial issues facing our universities, not the wages of the people who do so much for tertiary education in our state,” he said. “There is no student experience without Professional Staff.”