£ 332,000!
That’s the average pay of top university chiefs – and one takes home £439,000
BOSSES at our top universities are paid an average of £332,000 a year, it emerged yesterday.
The best-paid vice-chancellor in the elite Russell Group earns three times the Prime Minister’s salary.
Figures show the average pay of a vice-chancellor running one of the 24 research-intensive institutions has reached £331,641, including benefits.
The data for 2016/17 comes amid an escalating row over the large salaries of vice-chancellors as undergraduate tuition fees south of the Border continue to rise. Critics say it is inappropriate for them to be earning so much in government money as students pay £9,250 in annual fees.
The highest-paid in the group was Sir David Eastwood, who received £439,000 to run Birmingham University despite it being ranked only 16th in Britain in the Complete University Guide. Sir David’s pay is almost three times the £150,000 salary of Theresa May and 21 per cent more than Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the recently-retired head of Cambridge, which comes in the top two in national and global league tables.
Sir Leszek was paid about 50 per cent more than his predecessor was a decade ago, and in addition he had a grace-and-favour home on campus and shared a university car.
Prior to taking up his post, he spent three years as chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which regulates universities and has recently been accused of being soft on vice-chancellor pay.
The Russell Group includes universities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Oxford. The data, compiled by Times Higher Education, shows that once employer pension contributions are included, the average cost of heads’ pay packages was £355,670.
The second highest paid was Sir Keith Burnett at the University of Sheffield, who received £426,600 and no pension. Sheffield is ranked 32nd in the country.
In third place was Sir Christopher Snowden at the University of Southampton, who received £424,000. Southampton is ranked 26th. Cambridge’s Sir Leszek was the 11th highest paid in the group, earning £355,000 – £362,000 including pension. Oxford’s Louise Richardson was eighth, earning £366,000 or £430,000 including pension.
Former Labour education minister Lord Adonis said: ‘The vice-chancellors clearly think they can tough it out. Pay remains far too high and should be drastically cut to no more than £200,000 for any vice-chancellor and less for vice-chancellors of smaller universities.
‘It’s completely unjustifiable for the vice-chancellor of Birmingham to be paid more than the vice-chancellor of the more successful Cambridge.’
Russell Group chief executive, Dr Tim Bradshaw, said: ‘Our VCs tend to be paid less than their counterparts in countries like Australia and the US, while their average salary as a percentage of their university’s turnover is comparatively very low at just 0.05 per cent.’
A spokesman for Birmingham University said: ‘The vice-chancellor’s total remuneration reflects the size and complexity of the organisation, and, as a percentage of university turnover, it is half the sector average. It also reflects Sir David’s huge experience.’
‘Completely unjustifiable’