Vice-chancellors are ‘not paid enough’, says one who owns yacht

UNIVERSITY chiefs should not be ashamed of their salaries, a yacht-owning vice-chancellor has said.

George Holmes, of the University of Bolton, said that it is far better for students to be taught by someone who is successful and owns a Bentley. Prof Holmes, who earns an annual salary of £222,120, defended the pay packets of vice-chancellors, saying that if anything, they are not paid enough.

“I have had a very successful career,” he told The Financial Times. “I hope students use their education to get a good job and then they can have a Bentley. Do you want to be taught by someone who is successful or a failure?” Prof Holms, who became vicechancellor in 2006, two years after the institution became a university, has previously been criticised for receiving a £1million “bridging loan” from the university to buy a house near Bolton.

“Those at the top end of the sector are not paid enough,” he said. “Nine Australian VCS earn more than A$1 million (£600,000) a year. Thirty university presidents in the US do. At Yale it is $1.2 million (£900,000) while Oxford pays £300,000. These are mobile jobs. If we cut people’s pay they will simply go abroad”

The University of Bolton does not feature in The Times Higher Education UK universities league table as it does not produce enough research papers.

His comments come after Jo Johnson, universities minister, called on institutions to show “serious restraint” in what they pay their vice-chancellors, warning that it is unacceptable for top universities to be “ratcheting up” salaries at a higher rate than inflation.