Fat-cat university bosses are living in lavish rent-free properties worth an estimated £60 million, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Vice-chancellors are already under fire for earning salaries of up to £450,000, but at least a third of higher education bosses are also enjoying multi-million pound grace- and-favour homes.
Our findings come as many universities prepare to lumber students with even higher debts by raising tuition fees to £9,250 next month, while staff face being axed because of budget cuts.
First-class: The 4.5m grace-and-favour home enjoyed by Cambridge vice-chancellor Professor Stephen Toope
The University of East Anglia’s vice-chancellor David Richardson, left, and his £1.7m home
In April, almost all universities in England won the right to introduce annual increases to tuition fees until 2020-21 – without guaranteeing any improvement to teaching.
An analysis of figures by the University and College Union (UCU) provided by 24 universities reveals their grace-and-favour properties are worth at least £28 million – an average of £1.2 million per residence. Further research shows that at least 49 universities in the UK provide rent-free accommodation to their chiefs – which would bring the total to more than £58.8 million if the average market value applies across the board.
The most expensive – the imposing vice-chancellor’s lodge at Cambridge University, which is worth more than £4.5 million – is currently undergoing a refit costing nearly £700,000. The detached property is surrounded by mature trees in a conservation area on a private road which ‘retains the character of a country lane’.
Documents seen by The Mail on Sunday show that ‘operational improvements’ are under way before the arrival of the new vice-chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, who is expected to be paid in excess of £400,000.
The university said the refit was needed to enhance the lodge as an ‘events venue’.
Other examples of luxury accommodation include a £1.2 million Georgian townhouse in a fashionable area of Glasgow, bought by the University of Strathclyde and now enjoyed by vice-chancellor Professor Jim McDonald.
During a £339,000 refit of the home in 2014, £4,000 was spent on a wardrobe and £3,400 on sofas.
Lavish: The £1.2m residence, left, owned by Leicester University’s chief Professor Paul Boyle
Glasgow’s Park Circus, left, where Strathclyde University’s Professor Jim McDonald, right, lives in a £1.2m home
Leicester University vice-chancellor Professor Paul Boyle’s residence, Knighton Hall, is a 17th Century manor house worth at least £1.2 million. The university has imposed a series of cost-cutting measures in recent years, including a plan to save £2.5 million through redundancies. A spokesman said the residence was used to host guests and the number of enforced redundancies was ‘very small’.
At the University of East Anglia, vice-chancellor Professor David Richardson lives at Wood Hall, a 17th Century farmhouse worth more than £1.7 million. The period house is described as ‘a delightful small country house of character and historical patina’.
It also emerged last week that more than £100,000 was spent at Oxford University on a makeover of Louise Richardson’s £2 million luxury grace-and-favour home before she moved in last year.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘This is yet another example of leadership largesse which is an embarrassment to the sector.
‘While students rack up enormous debts to pay for their time at university, and academic staff on casual contracts struggle to get mortgages, many vice-chancellors enjoy rent-free accommodation at the expense of the university.
‘Universities argue that these properties are also used for formal events, but as tuition fees continue to rise, questions must be asked about whether this level of subsidy for well-paid leaders is really justifiable.’
The Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this month that Professor John Hughes, vice-chancellor of Bangor University, lives in a country house which his institution bought for him for £475,000 before it embarked on a lavish programme of renovations costing £267,000. It came at a time when the university was making £8.7 million in budget cuts.
Many vice-chancellors also have council tax, utility bills, gardening and cleaning costs paid for.