Chancellor got £260k home makeover perk. Now 115 staff face axe
THE boss of one of Britain’s smallest universities has been handed a grace-and-favour residence that cost his struggling institution almost £750,000.
Professor John Hughes, vicechancellor of Bangor University, lives in a country house which his institution bought for him for £475,000 before it embarked on a lavish programme of renovations.
It spent a further £267,000 refurbishing the three- bedroom residence, lavishing £16,000 on Laura Ashley furnishings, including a staggering £700 on cushions.
Prof Hughes, whose annual salary of £245,000 is almost £100,000 more than the Prime Minister’s, racked up nearly £20,000 in expenses in the last financial year, latest figures show.
The vice-chancellor’s salary and the cost of his grace-and-favour home will fuel the row over ‘university fat cats’ who command six-figure salaries at a time when students are facing mounting debt and staff are laid off because of f budget cuts.
Prof Hughes’s expenses have been revealed at a time when his struggling university has revealed 115 staff face losing their jobs as part of £8.7 million in budget cuts.
At the time the job losses were announced in June, it was reported that Prof Hughes was in Hong Kong entertaining alumni at a five-star hotel with champagne and canapes.
Bangor has been criticised before for the lavish expense claims of its director of development, Sheila O’Neal, who claimed £ 45,000 in just 14 months, which included a £10,000 trip to New York.
Prof Hughes’s country house is on the banks of the Cadnant river, in Menai Bridge on the Isle of Anglesey. It comes with a picturesque garden spread over an acre of land, and boasts a conservatory and library.
The house was bought by the university when Prof Hughes became vice-chancellor in 2010. According to a Freedom of Information request, he spent £16,000 on Laura Ashley furnishings, which included £3,239 on sofas, and £700 worth of cushions. Among other costs, the professor, a mathematician and physicist, also spent £ 95,000 to refurbish his kitchen and bathrooms. Latest figures show Prof Hughes’s £19,670 expenses in the 2015/ 16 financial year included £8,880 in hotel bills.
In the same period, he received an eight per cent pay rise, when the national average pay increase was only 1.3 per cent.
Last night, a spokesman for Bangor University said: ‘After being purchased for £ 475,000, it [ the house] was independently valued at £750,000 in 2011 and, like other assets owned by the university, it could be sold in the future if the university wishes.’
The university also defended Ms O’Neal’s expenses. The spokesman said: ‘In terms of fundraising, it is essential that the Director of Development travels extensively both nationally and internationally in order to cultivate contacts and to raise funds. Ms O’Neal has been successful in raising many millions of pounds for the university.’
A spokesman for Unison, which is fighting for the 115 staff at risk of losing their jobs, said: ‘Staff are alarmed at the apparent state of Bangor University’s finances. They are angry that management has put their jobs at risk.
‘One idea the trade unions have put forward is to sell the grace-and-favour property, which is scarcely used. We believe this could net the university £1 million.’