(including £2 for her breakfast after a meeting)
THE head of England’s universities regulator has returned her expenses following an outcry over the high pay of vice-chancellors.
Nicola Dandridge, whose role is to ensure students get value for money, repaid a number of claims – including one for a £2 breakfast – and vowed she would make no more.
Ms Dandridge has urged universities to avoid awarding vicechancellors excessive pay.
Documents show the Office for Students (OFS) chief executive, who earns £165,000 a year, reimbursed the regulator for a number of food and drink claims made before the self-enforced ban in March.
The repaid claims included £52 for a lunch meeting on January 15, a £14.50 dinner on January 16 and a £2 breakfast the following day. A £40.44 lunch meeting on February 16 was also repaid, along with a £6.20 breakfast on February 21 last year. No reason has been given for Ms Dandridge’s self-enforced ban and repayments.
An OFS spokesman said it was a “personal decision”.
Documents show it came shortly after she welcomed signs of “pay restraint” at some universities, following an outcry over pay, perks and expenses of vice-chancellors.
At least six universities paid their vicechancellors £500,000 or more in salary, bonuses and benefits last year. In February Ms Dandridge welcomed the decision by some universities to reduce the basic pay of their bosses.
She said: “It is important students and public can be assured they are receiving value for money for this funding, and restraining senior excessive pay is part of this.”
She added that “where pay is out of kilter” vicechancellors “should be prepared to answer tough questions from their staff, student bodies and the public”. Details of her repaid expenses were revealed after a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Express.
The OFS, which was officially launched last January “to hold universities to account”, responded by saying some claims, including £21 flowers for a member of staff, a £3.70 rail ticket and a £16.36 book from Amazon for its library, had been “miscoded as subsistence” and had been corrected.
It added: “The chief executive decided as a matter of policy not to claim the subsistence to which she is entitled, and since March 2019 has not claimed any subsistence.
“As a consequence, she repaid all subsistence claimed prior to March 2019 as well as two claims for meals paid for her and others.”