Uni staff to strike as pay for top brass is revealed
Former vice chancellor paid £372,000 for four months’ work
THE former vice chancellor of University of Birmingham was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for just four months work, according to figures seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Sir David Eastwood was paid £372,000 between August and December 2021.
The payout included £120,000 for Sir David as part of a long-term incentive plan and a further £70,000 performance-related award.
Between August 2020 and July 2021, at the height of the pandemic when many students studied online, Sir David was paid £401,000.
Current vice-chancellor Adam Tickell was awarded £229,000 between 2021 and 2022, according to the figures.
It means the higher education establishment paid out £601,000 to its respective vice chancellors in that period, the second highest figure in the Russell Group of universities.
More than 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK will strike for 18 days between February and March in disputes over pay, conditions and pensions.
The union is demanding a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost of living crisis as well as action to end the use of “insecure” contracts.
A pay increase worth between 4% and 5% was offered by the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), which represents university employers, but the union said it was not enough.
Jo Grady, University and College Union (UCU) general secretary, said members were entering their 13th year without an above inflation pay rise.
“There is no justification whatsoever for a vice-chancellor to earn so much more than the staff who teach, research and support students.
“This is yet further proof that those who lead the sector have their priorities wrong.
“University staff are ready to take further strike action this year because they are sick of being told to tighten their belts by a sector generating record income and sitting on tens of billions of pounds in reserves.
“We need to see urgent investment in staff through improved pay, pensions and working conditions, or higher education in the UK will experience disruption like never before.”
Sir David’s tenure as vice chancellor at Birmingham saw several protests.
In 2014, 13 students affiliated with Defend Education Birmingham and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) were arrested in the university’s Guild of Students for protesting against rising tuition fees and low staff wages.
Demonstrators claimed they had been ‘kettled’ – a tactic to confine protesters to a small area – which
West Midlands police strongly denied.
In 2017, more than 160 academics protested over the high salary and benefits received by Sir David, including his university-funded chauffeur-driven car.
Of the 21 Russell Group universities to have published their accounts so far, the median package rose from £375,000 to £382,000 in 2021-22.
A University of Birmingham spokesman said: “The university remuneration committee, determines salary for senior staff including the vice chancellor and full details of the basis on which they reached decisions about salary levels are published annually in the Uuniversity’s annual report and accounts.
“Professor Sir David Eastwood retired at the end of 2021 after more than 12 years at the university.
“A long-term incentive plan was put in place in 2015/16 by remuneration committee for Sir David Eastwood; this has been reported each
year in the University Annual Report since then.
“Any reward under that plan required a performance threshold to be met and that Professor Eastwood remained in post.
“The term, which had been extended in October 2019, ended in 21/22 and resulted in remuneration committee agreeing a one-off award of £120,000.”