Vice-chancellors should have ‘excessive’ pay cut

Vice-chancellors should not have Covid-19 wage cuts restored, the universities minister said yesterday as she argued they should not be paid more than the prime minister.

Michelle Donelan said: “I think vice-chancellors’ wages should be justifiable and should not be excessive.

“I myself, personally, struggle to understand how we can justify vice-chancellors being paid two, three times the amount of the prime minister and I think we do have to question that.”

She told the education select committee that some universities had voluntarily agreed to maintain wage cuts and hoped others would follow.