HARRISBURG -- Richard E. Willey, head of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Authority, who is leaving under a cloud of controversy over lavish spending, is eligible for a maximum pension of about $370,000 a year, according to an estimate by the Post-Gazette based on employment records provided by the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System.

That would be enough to pay annual tuition for 35 undergraduates at Penn State University.

Pension payments are based on years of service and salary from the employee's three top-earning years.

Mr. Willey, 61, announced this week that he will retire at the end of the year. He has worked for the state for 32 years, including more than five years as PHEAA's president and chief executive and as executive director of the House Appropriations Committee. His salary is $289,118, but hefty annual bonuses like the $180,857 he received in August also count toward his pension.

Mr. Willey's critics, including Gov. Ed Rendell, say he condoned wasteful spending at PHEAA, including six-figure bonuses to its executives and expensive retreats for its board members.

The retreats included falconry lessons, golf outings, $150 cigars, luxurious spa treatments for board members' spouses and $95-a-plate dinners.

PHEAA officials plan to search nationwide for Mr. Willey's replacement.

Mr. Rendell said that casting a wide net should yield a good candidate who has no political ties to the state. He said the new PHEAA head should be cognizant that the agency is not a private company but a public entity that is accountable to taxpayers and residents.

"I don't think Dick [Willey] ever understood that," Mr. Rendell told reporters Wednesday.