Cuts at universities, while vice chancellors enjoy huge salaries and perks
University chiefs in the West Midlands are being paid twice as much as the Prime Minister – and enjoying a string of lavish perks – as they wield the axe on staff and courses.
An investigation by the Birmingham Post has revealed the salary-and-benefits packages of globe-trotting vice chancellors at a time when the coalition Government has called for cuts restraint in public spending.
Angry unions have warned hundreds of staff will be made redundant and courses will be scrapped as universities grapple with 25 per cent cuts. They have accused the vice chancellors of “living like viceroys”.
The Post can reveal the vice chancellor of The University of Birmingham, Professor David Eastwood, has his own chauffeur, gardener and cleaner – while three others enjoy rent-free accommodation.
Another senior academic claimed almost £12,000 expenses on artwork and £1,800 on taxis.
Following a Freedom of Information Act request, University of Birmingham disclosed the vice chancellor earns more than £310,000 per year – more than double the £142,500 paid to David Cameron and submitted more than 2,000 expenses claims in 2009-10.
The university refused to give specific details of the expenses. It said it would cost more than £450 to extract each claim from the accounts to be certain they came from vice chancellor Prof David Eastwood or from other staff members in his office.
Aston University’s vice chancellor Prof Julia King has an annual salary £260,410 and benefits from a rent-free flat on the campus. She claimed nearly £7,000 in one month to buy artwork for council and study rooms and a further £4,900 for an individual piece.
In addition to spending more than £25,000 in two years on a university funded credit card, Prof King also claimed back half her telephone bill in “cash expenses.” Her bill for taxis in 2008 was £1,800.
Her credit card spending included university related trips to Vietnam, Japan, Sweden, Hungary and India. They included hotel bills for The Ritz, in Tokyo and nearly £400 for a staff member leaving dinner at a Thai restaurant in Birmingham.
Warwick University’s vice chancellor Nigel Thrift, who earns £247,000 a year, benefits from farmhouse accommodation, owned by the university.
He claimed nearly £23,000 in two years – mostly spent on university-related travel to America, Hong Kong, India and China. In one trip, he claimed more than £2,000 in hotel expenses in the United States and £2,246 on a trip to Hong Kong.
Birmingham City University’s vice chancellor David Tidmarsh received an inflation-busting 10 per cent pay increase from £213,843 in 2007-08 to £237,864 in 2008-09. He claimed a relatively modest £700 in expenses for the same time period.
All of the universities are making redundancies.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched a scathing attack on the salaries of vice-chancellors, who he described as being “out of touch with reality on pay levels.”
