How worst universities give their chiefs bumper salaries
THE vice-chancellors of some of the country’s worst performing universities are among the highest paid, a study has found.
In contrast, many of the heads of institutions with higher league table rankings are paid less.
The study compared the rank of a vicechancellor’s pay package on a national league table with their institution’s performance in a good university guide.
There were ten instances where a university sits at least 50 places higher in the vice-chancellors’ pay league than it does in the guide’s table. But 12 rank at least 50 places higher in the guide’s table than their leader does in the pay league.
Professor David Green, of Worcester University, has a pay package of £319,000 – making him the 28th highest paid – but his university is ranked joint No 102 when judged on how students rate the quality of teaching; their wider university experience, the jobs that graduates obtain and the quality of the research.
Professor Iain Martin, of Anglia Ruskin University, has a £303,000 package – giving him a pay ranking of 41 – yet his institution is ranked 113.
And Professor Christina Slade, formerly of Bath Spa University, is ranked 24 for pay with £333,000 but her university was only 94 in The Sunday Times Good University Guide, published in September. She received £808,000 in her final year including a £429,000 severance payment, her salary and other payments. Professor David Latchman, master of Birkbeck, University of London, represents the biggest rankings gap: for remuneration he is ranked 10, on £392,287, but his institution is placed at 122.
But his university admits most of its students without traditional qualifications – which depressed its rank in its first appearance in the guide, said The Sunday Times, which produced the ‘pay versus performance study’.
In comparison, Robert Allison, vice-chancellor of Loughborough University, is paid £259,780, giving him a pay ranking of 88, but his university is considered one of the best in the country and ranked joint seventh in the table.
Top of the list is Harper Adams, in Shropshire, with a 91-place difference between its guide place at 33 and vice- chancellor David Llewellyn’s remuneration ranking of 124 for his £182,000 pay. The study comes at a time of growing anger over vice- chancellors’ pay packets and perks. Universities minister Jo Johnson has said institutions must deliver ‘value for money for students and taxpayers’, while Lord Adonis, a former education minister, said universities were being ‘run by vice-chancellors who have become latter- day prince bishops paid up to £500,000 a year’. He has called for limits to top pay.
The figures in the study included salary, pension contributions and benefits. The highest paid vicechancellor, Professor Dame Glynis
‘They must deliver value for money’
Breakwell, is retiring from Bath University, following an outcry over her remuneration package of £468,000. Bath is ranked 12 in the good university guide.
÷A higher education watchdog that will have the power to crack down on vice-chancellors’ bloated salaries comes into force today.
The Office for Students, which is replacing the Higher Education Funding Council for England as the main regulator of higher education, will also have powers to ensure universities promote student interests and to fine or de-register those that fail to protect free speech.
Universities will have to provide a ‘clear justification’ for paying any employee more than £150,000 or risk a fine.