University boss handed £230k ‘golden goodbye’
A university vice-chancellor was given a £ 230,000 ‘golden goodbye’ in his final month, it emerged yesterday.
in the latest example of university bosses being given enormous sums, Professor Michael Farthing was handed the money upon his departure from the university of sussex.
news of the pay-off came as Lord Adonis branded university chiefs ‘ latter- day Prince- Bishops’ and demanded an independent inquiry into the ‘scandal’ of their pay.
Professor Farthing, who left sussex in August 2016 after nine years at the helm, was given a package worth £252,000 for that month, said the times Higher education magazine.
the payment ‘in lieu of notice’ also included employer pension contributions worth £3,000.
Professor Farthing had attracted criticism in his final year of office for presiding over the outsourcing of hundreds of service staff and the suspension of five students who demonstrated against the changes.
university accounts say: ‘Within the £249,000 paid to Professor M. J. G. 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 (Higher education Funding Council for england) funds.’ it comes after the news this week that Professor Christina slade was handed more than £800,000 for her final year as vice-chancellor at Bath spa university, including £429,000 as ‘compensation for loss of office’.
Lord Adonis yesterday warned the House of Lords that universities are being ‘run by vice-chancellors who have become latter-day Prince-Bishops paid up to £500,000 a year’.
the former education minister called for an independent inquiry to recommend ‘limits to top pay’ and suggested the Archbishop of Canterbury as a suitable chairman.
this is because he ‘is paid only £80,000, he runs an organisation much like a university’ and ‘like many vice-chancellors he lives in a palace’.
Professor Michael shattock, of university College London, warned sussex’s payment would almost certainly result in a HeFCe investigation.
the university of sussex said: ‘[Our] 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 financial accounts.’