University leaders paid £250,000 a year as students fees are tripled

By Graeme Paton. University vice-chancellors were paid almost £250,000 on average last year, just as they prepared to impose a huge rise in student tuition fees. Research shows that the institutions’ leaders saw their pay and benefits increase by more than £5,000 on average in 12 months. The highest-paid was Prof Andrew Hamilton, of Oxford, whose overall package stood at £424,000 in 2011/12 – the final academic year before a near tripling of student fees. It was almost three times the Prime Minister’s salary of £142,500.
Prof Les Ebdon, the director of the Government’s Office for Fair Access, was awarded a £32,000 increase in the final year of his previous post in charge of Bedfordshire University. It took his salary and benefits there to £280,000 – more than the £271,000 paid to the vice-chancellor of Cambridge. Read more...