Presidents of some of the nation’s biggest public universities are closing the salary gap with their rivals at private institutions, with the number of top executives earning more than $500,000 nearly doubling, according to an annual survey of compensation by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The survey also found that seven presidents of private colleges, universities and medical schools currently receive more than $1 million in compensation.

The latest survey of 853 colleges, universities and specialized schools for subjects like medicine found that 112 paid their presidents at least $500,000. And it showed the upward spiral of compensation occurring in public institutions as well as private ones, with 42 presidents of public colleges earning $500,000 or more compared with the 23 reported in last year’s survey. The Chronicle is scheduled to make the survey public today.

Audrey K. Doberstein, who stepped down in June as president of Wilmington College in Delaware, ranked first in total compensation, receiving $2.7 million in the 2004-5 academic year. That broke down into about $705,000 in salary, $798,615 in deferred compensation and $1.2 million in benefits. [Way to go Audrey!]

... Other presidents in the million-dollar bracket were Peter G. Traber from Baylor College of Medicine (more than $1.3 million), E. Gordon Gee of Vanderbilt University (nearly $1.2 million) and Karen L. Pletz of Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (more than $1 million).

Three other presidents who stepped down recently also earned more than $1 million: Jeffrey S. Lehman of Cornell University, Roger H. Hull of Union College and Donald E. Ross of Lynn University.

The most highly paid public university president, David P. Roselle of the University of Delaware, neared the $1 million mark: he earned $729,054 in salary and $250,517 in benefits. A university spokesman declined to comment. [What is it about Delaware? And yeah - declining comment ... understandable...]

The climb in the college chiefs’ income is driven largely by the greater competition for experienced university executives as the baby boom generation retires and by institutions’ increasing willingness to poach, said Raymond D. Cotton, a lawyer who specializes in academic presidents’ contracts and compensation.

“The absolute number of people available who can do these jobs well is shrinking,” Mr. Cotton said. “When demand increases and supply is shrinking, price goes up.”

Roger Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, said academic institutions were coming to resemble corporations.

“Presidents now are C.E.O.’s,” Mr. Bowen said. “You no longer have treasurers, you have chief financial officers; you no longer have deans, you have chief academic officers. Faculty play the role of labor, students play the role of customer.”

Critical of the change, Mr. Bowen said that presidential pay increases had outstripped faculty raises and that the widening gap could signal a shift in emphasis from educational achievement to financial management.

“It’s the faculty member sitting on a log with a student talking about the meaning of life, for God’s sake,” Mr. Bowen said. “It should not be about money.”

A good example of how and why top leaders’ compensation at public colleges is gaining on that of private colleges can be seen in the case of Mark A. Emmert, president of the University of Washington. His $752,700 in total compensation makes him the third highest paid among public university presidents, according to The Chronicle.

To persuade Mr. Emmert to give up his job as chancellor of Louisiana State University in 2004, the University of Washington offered Mr. Emmert $470,000, which was $175,000 more than it had paid to his predecessor, said Norman G. Arkans, executive director for media relations and communications at the University of Washington.

This year, Mr. Emmert’s former employer called. The board of regents for the University of Washington was not about to risk losing Mr. Emmert. So last month, it gave him a 5 percent raise and increased the amount paid to him each year in deferred compensation to $200,000 a year from $120,000.

“It’s a form of golden handcuffs,” Mr. Arkans said, because Mr. Emmert must be president five years to receive the deferred compensation.

James A. Boyle, president of College Parents of America, a nonprofit association whose membership comprises about 108,000 parents of current and prospective college students, voiced concern about so many presidents getting such high pay.

“I don’t begrudge a university president being well paid,” Mr. Boyle said, “but I think the problem is, compensation is being used as a lure to attract presidents to jobs as opposed to an incentive for them to perform well once in their position.”