University chief given £146,000 pay rise as staff got 1pc
Vice-chancellors labelled the ‘Marie Antoinettes of the education sector’
A UNIVERSITY vice-chancellor was handed a 67 per cent pay rise at a time when his staff were forced to accept real-terms cuts, figures reveal.
Prof Bob Cryan, of the University of Huddersfield, has seen his salary increase by £146,261 since tuition fees were trebled in 2012, despite the university operating a below inflation 1 per cent annual pay rise for its staff.
His six-figure pay hike emerged yesterday as part of a study into vice-chancellor pay, which found that dozens of university leaders have seen their pay packages surge by more than 20 per cent over the past five years.
Prof Cryan’s £364,564 salary is nearly 25 per cent higher than the average pay package for a vice-chancellor.
He is now the 15th bestpaid vice-chancellor in the country, despite the University of Huddersfield sitting in 72nd place in the national rankings, according to The Complete University Guide.
Meanwhile, figures released by Times Higher Education show that Prof John Vinney, Bournemouth’s vicechancellor, was awarded a 53 per cent increase to £305,000, while the University of Roehampton sanctioned a 52 per cent hike for Prof Paul O’prey, its vice-chancellor. The universities are ranked 57th and 69th nationally.
Of 114 universities surveyed, 44 (more than a third) awarded their vice-chancellor a pay increase of more than 20 per cent.
The figures will likely fuel the row growing between the Government and leaders in the sector, who have so far resisted calls from Jo Johnson, the universities minister, to bring to an end the “endless ratcheting up” of pay among higher earners.
Weighing in on the row, Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education select committee, last night said that the latest figures “reeked” and were further evidence that “rot had continued to set-in across the sector”.
“These obscene levels of pay show that university vice chancellors are becoming the Marie Antoinettes of the education sector,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Whilst they enjoy huge salaries and perks, they say to struggling students: let them eat cake. Pay should be entirely linked to performance and the employment destinations of students after graduation.”
A spokesman for the University of Huddersfield said Prof Cryan had voluntarily frozen his pay for a four-year period to 2011, and his pay rise reflected the “sustained high-level performance” of the university. The spokesman added Prof Cryan’s expense claims were among the lowest in the sector.