University chief complained about cuts... then saw pay rise by £45k!

A UNIVERSITY boss’s pay deal increased by £45,000 in the year of her retirement – after she had complained about government funding cuts.

Dame Julia Goodfellow, vice chancellor of the University of Kent, was paid a total of £324,000 in 2016-17, up by 16.1 per cent from £279,000 in 2015-16.

The rise, revealed in the institution’s annual accounts, was comprised of a £20,000 pay increase and a £25,000 performance-related bonus.

It came after Dame Julia, pictured, cosigned a letter to a newspaper in 2010 hitting out at government cuts in higher education grants and arguing in favour of higher tuition fees for students.

Yesterday, University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘The controversy over vice-chancellors’ pay has shone a real light on the poor leadership of those in charge of our universities and given the impression that they are just in it for themselves. These latest revelations look like further evidence of one rule for the few at the top and another for everyone else.’

Dame Julia retired in July last year after ten years in office at Kent, which is ranked 25th in the country in the Complete University Guide.

The figures, compiled by Times Higher Education, showed that Baroness Brown of Cambridge, who as Julia King was vicechancellor of Aston University for ten years until October 2016, also received a significant pay package before she left.

She was paid £110,863 in her final three months of office. This included a salary of £70,000, a £31,000 bonus and £9,863 in contributions towards an ‘unregistered, unfunded retirement benefits scheme’ in lieu of pension contributions.

A Kent spokesman said Dame Julia’s salary increase in 2016-17 was ‘in line with the sector average’. The bonus of £25,000 was ‘in recognition of her sustained high performance during her final year as vice-chancellor’.

An Aston spokesman said Lady Brown had ‘received [the] £31,000 for meeting pre-determined targets for exceptional leadership, including the achievement of excellent student retention rates [and] increased student numbers’.