Fewer and fewer top earners in higher education, most top salaries in Rotterdam

The number of top earners in higher education has fallen sharply in recent years. In 2016, 112 professors, deans and directors received a top income; by 2024, that number had dropped to just 39. The highest salaries are mainly found in Rotterdam.

Since the introduction of the Senior Public Sector Executives (Standards for Remuneration) Act in 2013, (semi-)public institutions, including universities of applied sciences and research universities, have no longer been allowed to pay exorbitant salaries to their Executive Board. The maximum income is set annually. In 2024, the limit was 233,000 euros.

Other staff members, such as professors, are allowed to earn more than this threshold. However, the educational institution is then required to make their salary public, without naming individuals.

Decline

An analysis of figures from DUO shows that the number of top earners in higher education has declined significantly in recent years. According to the oldest available figures, there were still 112 non-board members with a salary above the standard in 2016. In 2020, this number had fallen to 64, and four years later to 39.

Top salaries in Rotterdam

The top salaries are mainly found at Erasmus University. Ten professors and three deans earned more than the maximum remuneration in 2024, according to the university’s annual report.

According to a spokesperson, the university simply complies with the collective labour agreement, but additional elements are sometimes added to the salary, such as a ‘labour market allowance’ and ‘compensation’ for pensions. Some staff members are also paid out for leave days they did not take.

The annual report states that all Rotterdam top earners receive pension compensation. For almost all of them, ‘various allowances’ are part of the explanation for their salary above the standard; more than half have sold leave days, and a small number have received a bonus or income from work for third parties.

However, the number of top earners has also fallen at Erasmus University. In 2016, 27 professors and deans there had a top salary; by 2024, that number had more than halved.

At the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, only one top earner remains. This concerns a director of one of the scientific institutes, who earned more than 250,000 euros in 2024.

Highest salary

The highest salary went to a professor in Tilburg. This person earned more than 340,000 euros, partly due to his or her ‘special contribution to science’, according to an explanation.

From 2016 onwards, the number of top earners has been falling by an average of ten people per year. If this trend continues, by around 2027 there will be no professors, deans or directors earning more than the minister.

Why this decline is taking place is not entirely clear: after all, these staff members are allowed to earn more, and this used to happen frequently. Now that the salaries of board members have been capped, there appears to be a cultural shift, in which older professors with top salaries are succeeded after their retirement by, as education union AOb puts it, ‘people with a more normal level of pay’.