£1.6k bill to fly college chief’s dog to the UK
A UNIVERSITY spent more than £1,600 of public money on bringing its new vice chancellor’s dog from Australia to the UK, an investigation said.
The money, paid by the University of Surrey, was part of a £15,000 relocation package for Professor Max Lu to bring over his family, including Maltese dog Oscar, in 2016, Channel 4 programme Dispatches found.
It was among £7.8million spent by the country’s universities from 2015 to 2017, the edition will claim tonight.
The money was also used for firstclass flights and five-star hotel stays around the world, with £1,000-plus bills for meals at top restaurants.
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Higher education has had to endure months of terrible headlines over the pay and perks scandals of those at the top. The lack of self-awareness while they feather their own nests yet hold down staff pay, use insecure contracts and try to slash pensions, is quite staggering.”
The University of Surrey defended the payment to Prof Lu as “reasonable relocation expenses”.
MP Robert Halfon, chairman of Parliament’s education select committee, called for more transparency.
He told Dispatches: “Those kinds of examples are pretty shocking, dare I say it being an MP, but the dog example is slightly comparable to duck houses which caused the expenses scandal for Members of Parliament in the first place.
“This is public money and just as it’s a requirement now for MPs to publish their expenses, universities should be subject to the same procedures.”
Dispatches received 198 responses from 144 universities and individual Oxford and Cambridge colleges to its request for information.
Money was also spent on a £110 Fortnum & Mason hamper, artwork costing £1,300 and a £32.50 set of Laura Ashley mugs, the programme said.
The highest-spending vice chancellor was Professor Steve West of the Bristol-based University of the West of England, with a bill of £43,000 over 18 months, according to Dispatches.
The biggest-spending university was Southampton, the programme says, with a bill of £397,497.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: “It’s just not good enough. The next Labour government will set a clear limit on vice chancellors’ pay, stop them setting their own salaries and scrap student fees entirely.” ●Dispatches – Britain's University Spending Scandal – will be shown tonight on Channel 4 at 8pm. THE charity Mines Advisory Group (Mag) championed by Princess Diana yesterday apologised for failing to properly investigate claims staff paid women for sex.
It has come under fire after a whistleblower said staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo were habitually using prostitutes following internal complaints in 2011 and 2013.
Mag has since said it is “very sorry” the claims were not sufficiently followed up.
The charity is the latest to be embroiled in sex abuse allegations after revelations about workers and volunteers for Oxfam, Plan International, Unicef and the Red Cross.
Conspiracy
Diana walked through a minefield in Angola to raise awareness of the dangers in August 1997 and Prince Harry has followed in her footsteps and is also supporting Mag.
The Red Cross admitted 21 members of staff had quit or been sacked over sexual misconduct allegations and Plan International admitted six cases of sex abuse and exploitation of children between July 2016 and June last year.
A former Mag charity worker said staff members paid prostitutes or formed relationships with locals while working in the capital Kinshasa.
They said: “It is not just peacekeepers. It is not just Oxfam or any other NGO or aid agency. It is endemic. People saying this is a Right-wing conspiracy or blaming a few ‘bad apples’ have either never been based in the developing world working for an NGO or prefer to turn a blind eye.”