One of New Zealand’s growth industries over the last 20 or so years has been university level art education. A couple of art schools , Elam in Auckland and Ilam in Christchurch, have been around for a while, but many more institutions have draped gowns over their polytech overalls and joined in the rush for student gold.
In many respects it’s been a good thing. Now a whole bunch of artists can dump waiting at table and earn a good wage (sorry, we meant salary) teaching young hopefuls.
And the pay is great. If you want to get into the university art teaching business, here’s what you can expect to earn (these figures are based on averages offered by the University of Auckland who own 1 Professor, 5 Associate Professors, 10 Senior Lecturers and 7 Lecturers).
Professor: $130,000
Associate Professor: $112,000
Senior Lecturer: $90,000
Lecturer: $73,000
So you can see what some of those students might be hopeful about, career-wise that is.
Image: a lump of gold
