First-class dishonour
University gave its £350k vice-chancellor a £64k pay rise, £57k travel expenses, paid £67k to his sister’s firm... AND spent £22k on video of him dancing to Bonnie Tyler
A UNIVERSITY at the centre of an official investigation by the education watchdog authorised an extraordinary series of payouts linked to its vice-chancellor.
Having awarded Dominic Shellard a £64,000 pay rise last year, De Montfort University also paid almost £2,700 towards his membership at an exclusive private members’ club at The Ivy in central London.
The university’s accounts reveal it previously paid more than £57,000 in a year for his travel expenses and £67,792 to a consultancy firm run by his sister, Sonya.
De Montfort also spent £22,000 on a bizarre charity video that showed Professor Shellard, 52, dancing around the campus while lip-synching to Bonnie Tyler’s 1984 hit Holding Out For A Hero. The 2012 video reportedly raised only £5,000.
Amid claims of ‘extravagance, lies, bullying and lack of accountability’, the academic resigned as vice-chancellor earlier this week as the universities watchdog launched an investigation into governance and ‘regulatory matters’ at De Montfort in Leicester.
The former Labour councillor received the biggest salary rise of any vice-chancellor in the country last year, taking his annual pay to £350,000.
It has since emerged he held shares in a holding company run by the chairman of the university remuneration committee that authorised the 22 per cent pay rise. Professor Shellard had declared his shareholding in Metamorph, a holding company for legal services.
Its executive chairman, Anthony Stockdale, was chairman of the university’s remuneration committee.
Mr Stockdale resigned from the university’s governing board this week along with Tony Payne, a member of the finance and human resources committee, and Oliver Mishcon, a barrister and member of the ethics committee.
Sir Ian Blatchford, chairman of the governing board, quit in November.
The resignations have raised questions about the management of the university, which the Queen visited with the Duchess of Cambridge during her Diamond Jubilee tour in 2012.
An emergency joint meeting of the University and College Union and Unison, which represent academics and staff at De Montfort, passed a motion of no confidence in the management and governing body on Wednesday.
The motion said: ‘This meeting believes the management culture… under Dominic Shellard’s leadership has been one of extravagance, lies, bullying and lack of accountability at the top.’
The vice- chancellor lived rentfree in a grace-and-favour Victorian townhouse on the campus, which the university said he ‘will shortly be leaving’.
In its annual accounts, De Montfort, the former Leicester Polytechnic, said Professor Shellard’s pay was ‘in recognition of the vicechancellor’s significant impact on the university’s performance, as well as his strong presence and growing influence in the sector’.
The professor had cultivated a high-profile role as vice-chancellor and was appointed in 2017 as a global ambassador to the United Nations by the Gandhi Global Family, a peace organisation.
Educated at private Dulwich College in south London, he studied English and German at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, and worked as a researcher for Labour MP Ann Clwyd before returning to academia. Professor Shellard was unavailable for comment yesterday. It is not known what process was used to award the money to his sister’s consultancy firm. De Montfort’s new interim vicechancellor Andy Collop said he wanted to ensure ‘greater transparency in our governance’, adding:
an culture environment ‘I am where determined staff and feel develop to safe create so a that they can freely express their views, allowing for honest discussion to take place.’
A spokesman for the Office for Students, the universities watchdog, said: ‘ We are looking into a number of regulatory matters relating to De Montfort University. While this work is continuing, there is no presumption of wrongdoing by the university.’
A spokesman for the university said: ‘The university can confirm it is happy to co-operate fully... in this matter. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further.’
‘Lack of accountability’