Rector takes pay cut amidst university pay rises
Average pay rise of £10,000 for university leaders
An examination of thirteen of the UK’s top universities’ financial statements from 2010-11 has revealed that their leaders earned an average salary of £333,000, with an average pay rise of £9,700.
The highest paid was Professor Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of Oxford University, who received a total pay packet of £424,000. The vice-chancellors of Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol and Southampton all received a pay rise.
These latest pay-rises come amidst a squeeze in university budgets in the last year with £215m cut from teaching budgets and £142m cut from capital project budgets used for new buildings and developments. They have prompted calls for the government’s crackdown on excessive executive pay to be extended to universities.
Meanwhile, some vice-chancellors did take a pay-cut including the rector of Imperial, Sir Keith O’Nions. However, O’Nions remains the third highest-paid vice chancellor, receiving a total pay packet of £354,000. A further six employees at Imperial were also listed as having earned over £270,000 in 2010-11, compared to three the year before.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, commented that the average salary of university leaders was “eye-wateringly high”, particularly since lecturers have faced a 7% real-terms pay cut since 2009.
A survey by The Independent also revealed that vice-chancellors and other senior staff claimed a total of approximately £700,000 in expenses in 2010-11, a drop from £883,000 the previous year.
Usman Ali, vice-president of the National Union of Students, also commented, “When students are facing trebled tuition fees and massive youth unemployment, and as universities deal with swingeing cuts to teaching budgets, it is appalling that university heads continues to fill their boots.”
Vice-chancellors’ salaries are usually determined by remuneration committees that most often do not include other employees. Hunt said, “I think there is a very strong argument for employee and student representatives to sit on university remuneration boards. It is vital that we ensure there is proper scrutiny of vice-chancellors’ pay and pension provision.”
Meanwhile, Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said the remuneration packages “reflected what it takes to recruit and retain individuals able to run complex, multimillion-pound organisations, which are operating in an increasingly competitive, global market.”
