Pity all us poor university chiefs
We are not paid enough says Bentley driving boss on £222,000
THE BOSS of a low-ranking university who drives a Bentley, sails a 30ft yacht, and earns a £222,000 salary has claimed vice-chancellors are not paid enough.
George Holmes, head of Bolton University, said he is worth his huge pay as he is a ‘success’.
The 56-year-old, who earns almost 50 per cent more than the Prime Minister, also said university bosses should be paid more or they could leave the country.
Professor Holmes made the claims despite a £20,000 pay rise last year – and a loan of almost £1million from the university to buy a home set in four acres.
Universities minister Jo Johnson last week called for an end to the ‘upwards ratchet’ of vicechancellors’ pay when student fees are about to rise to £9,250.
But Professor Holmes told the Daily Mail yesterday: ‘The criticism of our pay is an unfair attack … When the student loans came in, universities were even more difficult to manage.
‘That is the justification for chief executives like me being paid high salaries.’
Bolton, which became a university in 2004, charges the full £9,000 yearly fee despite one of the lowest graduate employment rates last year – 85.9 per cent.
It is ranked 125th of 129 in the Complete University Guide and 129th out of 160 for satisfaction in the National Student Survey.
A survey by Grant Thornton found that in 2015-16, student numbers fell by 6 per cent. Pro- fessor Holmes insisted he was running a ‘complex, commercial organisation’, telling the Financial Times: ‘I work 80 to 120 hours a week … I have had a very successful career. I hope students use their education to get a good job and then they can have a Bentley.’
When challenged over whether high vice- chancellor salaries were the best use of public money and tuition fees, he claimed: ‘University leaders are doing a very good job … Those at the top end of the sector are not paid enough. Nine Australian vice-chancellors earn more than a million Australian dollars (£603,650) a year. Thirty university presidents in the US do … If we cut people’s pay they will simply go abroad.’ Professor Holmes, a former Labour adviser, said his turnover last year was £47.3million, compared with £37million when he arrived in 2005. Last year he acquired a further education college, which saw turnover exceed £70million.
But yesterday, Sally Hunt of the University and College Union said: ‘The defences trotted out by vice- chancellors enjoying inflation-busting pay rises have been quite remarkable and have shown many to be out of touch. I am astounded they can defend their massive rises while keeping staff pay down.’
Robert Halfon, Tory chairman of the education select committee, said Professor Holmes’s pay was ‘unbelievable’, especially as the university scored only a silver in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework.
He added: ‘This huge salary clearly calls into question the amount of money that vicechancellors are being paid. Salaries must be linked to quality and performance. For this kind of salary, Bolton should be getting a gold in the TEF.’ Professor Holmes said he ‘has sympathy’ for staff on below-inflation pay rises, but claimed the only remedy was higher fees. He later said he will exercise ‘pay restraint’ on his salary and donate some to student bursaries.
Asked about his Bentley Continental and yacht – partly funded through an inheritance from his father – he said: ‘ You should be free to spend your money how you want.’
In 2015, it emerged the university gave him a £960,000 loan to buy a house near Bolton. He has now sold his other home and insisted he paid back the loan.
÷A university that paid its boss £1.7million over four years spent thousands of pounds on parties and gifts when he left a year early last September.
Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed the total spend by the London School of Economics on Craig Calhoun’s departure was more than £3,800, excluding a photographic copy of his portrait.
‘Must be linked to performance’