How worst universities give their chiefs bumper salaries
The vice-chancellors of some of the country’s worst performing universities are among the highest paid, a study has found.
In contrast, many of the heads of institutions with higher league table rankings are paid less.
The study compared the rank of a vicechancellor’s pay package on a national league table with their institution’s performance in a good university guide.
There were ten instances where a university sits at least 50 places higher in the vice-chancellors’ pay league than it does in the guide’s table. But 12 rank at least 50 places higher in the guide’s table than their leader does in the pay league.
Professor David Green, of Worcester University, has a pay package of £319,000 – making him the 28th highest paid – but his university is ranked joint No 102 when judged on how students rate the quality of teaching, their wider university experience, the jobs that graduates obtain and the quality of the research.
Professor Iain Martin of Anglia Ruskin University has a £303,000 package – giving him a pay ranking of 41 – yet his institution is ranked 113.
And Professor Christina Slade, formerly of Bath Spa University, is ranked 24 for pay with £333,000 but her university was only 94 in The Sunday Times Good University Guide, published in September.
She received £808,000 in her final year including a £429,000 severance payment, her salary and other payments. Professor David Latchman, master of Birkbeck, University of London, represents the biggest rankings gap: for remuneration he is ranked 10, on £392,287, but his institution is placed at 122.
But his university admits most of its students without traditional qualifications – which depressed its rank in its first appearance in the guide, said The Sunday Times, which produced the ‘pay versus performance study’.
In contrast, three Scottish universities were found to be paying their vice chancellors far less while outperforming higher paying institutions. St Andrews University vice chancellor and principal, Professor Sally Mapstone, was found to be the 79th best paid VC in the Uk, despite the university being ranked third in the Good University Guide. Professor Mapstone is paid £270,000 a year.
The University of Dundee’s VC, Professor Sir Peter Downes, is paid £264,000, making him the 85th best paid in the Uk. The university is ranked 23rd in the Good University Guide.
In edinburgh, heriot-Watt University’s VC, Professor Richard Williams, is the 98th best paid VC in Britain, earning £249,000 a year. The university is ranked 39th in the Uk.
Robert Allison, vice-chancellor of Loughborough University, is paid £259,780, giving him a pay ranking of 88, but his university is considered one of the best in the
‘They must deliver value for money’
country and ranked joint seventh in the table.
Top of the list is harper Adams, in Shropshire, with a 91-place difference between its guide place at 33 and vice-chancellor David Llewellyn’s remuneration ranking of 124 for his £182,000 pay.
The study comes at a time of growing anger over vice-chancellors’ pay packets and perks.
Universities minister Jo Johnson has said institutions must deliver ‘value for money for students and taxpayers’, while Lord Adonis, a former education minister, said universities were being ‘run by vice-chancellors who have become latter-day prince-bishops paid up to £500,000 a year’. he has called for limits to top pay.