A university was criticised yesterday for awarding its new principal a pay packet of more than £400,000, along with a grace-and-favour townhouse.
Campaigners said the deal given to Professor Peter Mathieson made a mockery of recent promises to curb pay largesse in higher education.
Edinburgh University’s offer means the salary for his position has now risen by a third.
The size of Professor Peter Mathieson’s pay package packet has been severely criticised
Professor Mathieson will be paid a basic salary of £342,000 – £85,000 more than his predecessor. He will also receive around £42,000 in lieu of pension contributions and £26,000 to cover relocation costs to a five-bedroom grace-and-favour home in the centre of the city.
The generous arrangement comes after former universities minister Jo Johnson called for an end to the ‘upwards ratchet’ of university executive pay.
It was criticised as another ‘outrageous fat-cat salary’ by former Labour education minister Lord Adonis.
Sally Hunt, of the University and College Union, said: ‘Edinburgh must have looked at months of terrible headlines for higher education about pay and perks … and decided a massive salary hike, a welcome package over £400,000 and a five-bed central Edinburgh home is the best response.
Edinburgh University (pictured) will pay their new vice-chancellor £85,000 more than his predecessor
‘It is quite incredible. There is a real crisis of leadership in our universities at the moment . Universities have promised time and again to get to grip with excessive senior pay and perks, yet this latest example shows they have no intention of doing so.
‘Politicians can talk all they like about tougher sanctions to deal with the problem, but it looks like universities will continue to ignore them.’
Professor Mathieson’s predecessor at Edinburgh was Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, who stood down last year after 15 years.
Inquiry if students get 2:2s!
Professors at an elite university have been told they will face investigation over their marking if they award average grades lower than a 2:1.
An email to staff at Queen Mary University of London’s business and management department said they would have to explain themselves if results failed to reach specific criteria.
A 2:1 – also known as an upper second – is often the minimum that graduate employers ask for, with 60 per cent usually the lower threshold for this grade.
The email asked assessors to bear in mind the ‘60:60:60’ principle. This indicates that staff will be ‘asked to explain’ if their class’s average mark ‘is below 60 and/or fewer than 60 per cent of the students receive a mark of more than 60’.
Critics said the message, uncovered by Times Higher Education, suggested academic staff were being pressured to ensure a large number of students achieved good marks.
Last year former universities minister Jo Johnson said grade inflation was ‘ripping through English higher education’.
Queen Mary, a Russell Group university, said the ‘60:60:60 principle’ was used only in its business school for marks that were ‘significantly below’ those at comparable universities.
According to university accounts, he received a basic salary of £257,000 in 2017. As well as the grace-and-favour home, Professor O’Shea had access to an executive car and driver.
Professor Mathieson, formerly vice chancellor of Hong Kong University, defended his pay.
‘I am aware there has been a lot of focus on vice chancellors’ pay, I’ve read that with interest from Hong Kong,’ he told The Times. ‘I had no negotiations – they made me an offer and I accepted it.
‘There was never any discussion about me wanting to be the highest paid … that offer involved me taking a substantial pay cut. In terms of percentage of turnover, I’m actually the lowest paid in Scotland.’
Dame Glynis Breakwell (pictured) announced her retirement following outcry over her pay
In earning more than £400,000, Professor Mathieson joins Dame Glynis Breakwell, who received £468,000 for the role of vice chancellor at Bath University. She announced her retirement following outcry over her pay.
According to the UCU, hundreds of staff at some universities are on six-figure sums – 451 at Oxford, 451 at Cambridge and 444 at UCL.
In November, the Office for Students said vice chancellors paid many times the average staff salary would be named and shamed. Chairman Sir Michael Barber said the watchdog would ‘bear down’ on pay levels ‘out of kilter’ with a university’s performance.
÷The chief executive of a leading academy chain was paid a package worth more than half a million pounds in 2016/17.
Accounts for the Harris Federation show Sir Daniel Moynihan earned £440,000-£445,000. But employer pension and national insurance contributions bring his total package to between £550,000 and £565,000, according to figures reported in the Times Educational Supplement.