Vice-chancellors ‘will have pay cut’ if universities perform poorly
VICE-CHANCELLORS should take a pay cut if their universities perform poorly, the chairman of the Office for Students (OFS) has suggested.
Sir Michael Barber said that the new regulatory body for higher education will bear down on excessive pay levels for university chiefs.
He said the OFS, which was created as part of an overhaul of the higher education system, would expose pay levels that look out of kilter with an institution’s performance.
“We have powers as the Office for Students to get into value for money – vice-chancellors’ pay, senior staff pay, is one key aspect of value for money. And people are interested in that,” he told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.
“There are some vice-chancellors’ pay packets that look out of kilter with the performance of their institutions, their contribution. We will certainly bear down on in a variety of ways.” He went on: “And one of the particular things we will do is look at the ratio between the vice-chancellor’s pay and the average pay of the staff in an institution. And that will make very visible where certain pay packets stand out like a sore thumb.
“I have said publicly to universities and to vice-chancellors, the best form of regulation is self-regulation. See among yourselves where the pay packets stand out and see whether you should reduce them.” Sir Michael said that universities would still have the independence to set their own pay rates, explaining: “We aren’t going to interfere directly with university autonomy which is fundamental to the success of British universities.”
The announcement will add further pressure on Prof Dame Glynis Breakwell, the highest paid vice-chancellor in the country, who has come in for widespread criticism over her pay packet. Dame Glynis, whose salary and benefits add up to £468,000, this week survived a vote of no confidence by Bath University’s senate.
A leaked email sent by Mike Nicholson, the university’s head of undergraduate admission, earlier this month showed that it is attracting fewer students than its rivals Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Loughborough, UCL and Warwick. “It is clear Bath is underperforming the sector and our immediate competitors, and in the case of international applications, very significantly so,” the email said.