£60,000 pay rise for the fat cat head of a tiny university

THE boss of one of Britain’s smallest universities received a pay rise of almost £60,000 last year – even though it only has 4,200 students.

Anne Carlisle, vice chancellor of Falmouth University, saw her pay soar to £285,900 – higher than that earned by the bosses of larger and more prestigious institutions.

It was revealed in a survey of fat cat pay at British universities.

Students and the taxpayer are helping to pay for vice chancellor raises of 10 per cent at a fifth of universities.

The news comes as the Government said some universities will be allowed to raise fees above the £9,000 cap in line with inflation.

The survey, by accountants Grant Thornton for Times Higher Education, found Professor Carlisle’s pay rose by 25 per cent from £228,500 to £285,900 in 2014-15.

This is more than the £271,000 paid to the head of Edinburgh University, which has 35,500 students, and close to the £296,000 paid to the vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, which has 38,600 students.

Falmouth said it reflected ‘the continued growth and success of the university’, where student numbers have risen 30 per cent in two years.

A spokesman added that student satisfaction and graduate employment had also risen. The survey showed bosses received an average package of £252,745 last year – a rise of 6.1 per cent. When pension contributions are included, average remuneration was £274,405 – 5.4 per cent higher than the previous year.

Sally Hunt, of the University and College Union, representing academics and staff, said: ‘The double standards in university pay are a disgrace.

‘Despite calls from government for pay restraint at the top, vice-chancellors have enjoyed bumper pay rises of over 5 per cent on average, while increases for rank-and-file staff are down at barely a quarter of that.’

The most money paid to a vice chancellor was £462,000 to former Oxford boss Andrew Hamilton.

A Falmouth spokesman said: ‘The vice- chancellor is not party to discussions regarding her own salary.’

In November, the Mail reported how Malcolm Gillies, former head of London Metropolitan University, received £618,000, even though it came 126th out of 126 institutions in the Complete University Guide.