Vice-chancellor shamed on air over £295k salary
A UNIVERSITY boss has been shamed live on air over his £295,000 salary and refusal to reduce student tuition fees.
Former Labour education minister Lord Adonis said the wage of David Phoenix, vice-chancellor of London South Bank University, should be cut to reduce the money students pay.
In a heated exchange on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Adonis said Professor Phoenix could ‘halve his salary’ and those of other senior staff to reduce ‘unsustainable’ fees, which are set to rise to £9,250 in September.
Professor Phoenix, who has run the university for three years, earned £243,000 in 2015/16, rising to £295,000 with pension contributions and other benefits included, according to South Bank’s financial statements.
This represents an 8 per cent increase on his pay the previous year. Nine other senior managers earned six figure salaries that year.
Lord Adonis said: ‘All of those salaries in my view should be halved. That would save £1million alone and be a big first step towards reducing fees.’ But Professor Phoenix said criticism of fees and vice-chancellor pay was ‘unfair’ because universities have faced cuts since 2012.
‘Of that £9,000 fee, about £8,000 of that is effectively replacement money that we used to get from government,’ he said.
Lord Adonis replied: ‘It is true... but the universities made a big profit on top. Even on the figures that Dave has just given, universities are still coining it.’ Professor Phoenix also claimed his base salary was only £227,000.