Pay rises for Vice-Chancellors are four times more than for academics

Last year, vice-chancellors received pay rises worth four times that of the majority of university staff, a study by Times Higher Education reveals.

In the 2014-15 academic year, the paper states that vice-chancellors, termed “academic fat-cats” by the University and College Union (UCU), received an average increase in their salary and benefits of 5.1 per cent, compared to the 1.3 per cent average of the rest of staff.

On top of this, departing vice-chancellors also received payouts which bumped the percentage up to 6.1 per cent, almost five times as much as their colleagues.

University heads got paid £252,745 on average last academic year, and almost one in five unis paid their leaders 10 per cent more than they did in the year before – just in case you were perplexed over where your £9k a year is actually going.

The paper states that a vice-chancellor who received one of the largest pay-rises was Anne Carlisle of Falmouth University. Although Falmouth is one of the UK’s smallest unis with only 4,200 students, Carlisle’s salary last year rose by £57,391 to £285,900, a whopping 25.1 per cent increase.

In comparison the vice-chancellor of University of Edinburgh, Sir Timothy O’Shea, was paid £271,000 last year despite the uni’s more prestigious reputation and 35,500 students – over eight times as many as attend Falmouth.

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General secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, said: “The blatant double standards in university pay are a disgrace, and are being felt acutely by staff across the sector. Despite clear calls from government for pay restraint at the top, vice-chancellors have enjoyed bumper pay rises of over five per cent on average while increases for rank and file staff are held down at barely a quarter of that.

“Average pay increases should match those enjoyed by vice-chancellors, but instead the majority of academic staff have seen the value of their pay fall by 14.5 per cent in six years, while job insecurity is rife and there has been little progress on the gender pay gap. The 1.1 per cent pay offer does nothing to address these issues, so it is no wonder that people are saying enough is enough and backing strike action.

“Universities need to answer some hard questions about how they will continue to attract and retain the best talent when pay is being held down and hardworking staff are receiving such poor reward for their efforts.”