Vice-chancellor given £230,000 ‘goodbye’

THE University of Sussex paid its head a £230,000 “golden goodbye” in the latest in a number of spiralling salary hikes for chancellors.

Professor Michael Farthing, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex, was handed the sum in August last year “in lieu of notice”.

The Sussex accounts come just days after it was disclosed that another university chief was handed more than £800,000 for her final year as vicechancellor, including a departure payment worth hundreds of thousands.

Prof Farthing, who left the university at the end of August 2016 after nine years, was given a pay package worth £252,000 for the month, the institution’s latest annual accounts show.

As well as the payment in lieu of notice, this also included pension contributions worth £3,000. The accounts say: “Within the £249,000 paid to Professor MJG Farthing in the year to 31 July 2017 is an amount of £230,000 paid in lieu of notice (2016: nil). This was sourced from NON-HEFCE funds.”

A spokesman said: “The university’s approach to senior staff remuneration continues to be open and transparent, and we take our governance responsibilities and sector compliance requirements very seriously.

“In the case of our former vice-chancellor, we met our contractual obligations to him and this has been clearly published in our annual accounts.”