Vice-chancellor pay: why the UK is up in arms about how much its university leaders get paid
In many ways, I'm a bit baffled by the current outcry in the UK about the level of pay received by university vice-chancellors.
For those not familiar with UK job titles, be under no illusions. The vice-chancellor is the equivalent to the president or chancellor at a US institution. The top dog. Although currently, they are more likely to be referred to as "fat cats".
There has been a string of stories about the amount of money these university leaders receive. Earlier this week, Times Higher Education revealed - to huge public outcry - that former Bath Spa University vice-chancellor, Christina Slade, received ￡808,000 in her final year in the job. Today, we learned that the University of Sussex’s former vice-chancellor was given a ￡230,000 pay-off in his final month in office.
It follows earlier stories about University of Bath vice-chancellor Dame Glynis Breakwell, who takes home ￡468,000 a year; and Sir Christopher Snowden, the vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton, who pockets a pay package totalling ￡433,000.
Let me be very clear. The reason I am baffled by the size of this scandal has nothing to do with the figures involved.
While many would rightly argue that individuals who head up our universities are running incredibly complex, international, and economically vital organisations, and therefore deserve to be well remunerated, the numbers involved still seem uncomfortably high - particularly when university funding in the UK increasingly comes from students in the form of tuition fees that, in 2012, increased from ￡3,000 to ￡9,000 a year.
It is worth adding as a side note here that the University of Cambridge's former vice-chancellor, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, earned a relatively modest ￡353,000 for heading up arguably the UK's most reputed and respected institutions during the period for which the most recent figures are available (figures for Oxford are less easy to calculate, as there was a change of vice-chancellor during the most recent accounting period).
Can any university really justify paying a salary 129 per cent higher than what Cambridge paid to its VC? It is hard to take - particularly when the mean average full-time salary for the UK higher education sector as a whole is ￡40,449. Many, of course, earn far far less.
So, no. I am not baffled by the outcry because of the figures involved. They are worthy of scrutiny, and the scrutiny reveals a pretty shocking picture.
What I am baffled by is the timing of this "scandal". The fact is, vice-chancellor pay information has been published in Times Higher Education for years. Year, after year, after year, after year our journalists have published this vital information.
We have published news story after news story after news story. And while within the sector there has been disquiet, the wider public seemed largely unmoved.
Indeed it was December last year when the Bath Chronicle published details of Dame Glynis's pay, and January this year when THE revealed it to be the highest in the sector at that point. And yet it was only in the Summer that her salary kicked off the ongoing torrent of stories in the UK press about vice-chancellor pay.
One of the main reasons for the igniting of interest is undoubtedly Andrew Adonis - a Labour Lord who was an adviser to Tony Blair's government when tuition fees increased to ￡3,000 in 2004.
He has since had a change of heart on tuition fees, and now dedicates much time (and many tweets) to lambasting vice-chancellor pay levels. Today he has called for an independent inquiry (which he says should be chaired by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby) into the “outrageous” pay of university heads.
His interventions have brought the issue to the front and centre of UK political debate - and with new details about pay emerging every week, the story will be around for some time to come.
Lecturer & Student Counselor at Kabarak University and Founding Consultant at Acumen Counseling and Consultancy Services
6 年Professors especially Vice Chancellors work beyond 24/7 imparting knowledge on all professionals of all cadres including Presidents of the world. Let them earn from it. I suggest developing countries should consider payrise for their professors too.
Barrage Balloon Historian. Military Historian.TV Contributor. Photography and Film media. Military Research
6 年Outrageous!
Writer, English & Humanities Professor
6 年Last January, Missouri Governor Eric Grietins cut $92 billion dollars from the higher education budget. State funded universities are now scrambling on how to make up the shortfall, resulting in full time staff and faculty layoffs. Never mind the inflated salaries of the university leaders (Saint Louis Community College's Chancellor makes $340,000 a year) or their university funded leadership retreats to places like the Florida Keys, it is the faculty salaries breaking the budget. (Full disclosure, I make $12,000 a year.) It is infuriating to see Universities being run as if they were businesses and the administration, who often have zero direct contact with the students, be paid such an inflated amount.
Director of Energy Blend - Founder Wolfe Power Club Podcast - Director & Part Owner Seahorse Nursery - Professional Tennis Umpire - Management Committee of Association of British Tennis Officials
6 年Chris good article and for me no outrage on figures by individuals, but more investigation should be done on process of salary setting and how some universities appear poor negotiating top contracts. I would be interested to hear Bath Spa side of argument why they felt they had to pay so much more than Cambridge and what they wanted delivered for that additional spend. All pay discussions within industry should look at salary setting within peer group. In uk ￡200k+ would still allow recruitment in top 0.5% of professional s, salaries north of ￡500k look like poor negotiating from institutions and excellent by VC.