Stop university bosses helping to set their own pay, says May

UNIVERSITY bosses should not sit on the panels which set their own pay, Theresa May declared yesterday.

The Prime Minister said she was ‘concerned’ about vice-chancellors who were involved in the remuneration committees which decide how much they are paid. As she launched a major review of post-school education, Mrs May warned the odds were ‘stacked against’ working-class children.

She also admitted high tuition fees meant a lot of graduates were getting a poor return on their investment.

And the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, said that in future fees will be determined by the ‘benefit to the student and the benefit to our country’.

Mrs May said the vote for Brexit was a sign that the UK economy and society ‘doesn’t work in too many communities’ and pledged to turn Britain into a ‘great meritocracy’. Addressing an audience of lecturers and students at Derby College she said ‘making good’ on the referendum result meant spreading fairness and opportunity.

The review will look at encouraging more children to take up technical and skills courses instead of seeing university as the only route. Her intervention follows a major backlash over spiralling pay and perks for senior university officials.

A study earlier this month found 95 per cent of vice-chancellors sat on their university remuneration committee or at least attended its meetings. A spokesman for Universities UK, representing vice-chancellors, said a new remuneration code will ‘ensure senior pay decisions are fair, accountable and justified’.