Rewards for university vice chancellors at odds with spending cuts
Nick McCarthy investigates the backlash brewing as university bosses earn some of the biggest salaries in the public sector
Prime Minister David Cameron recently took the unusual step of releasing the names of the highest paid 150 civil servants in the UK.
The aim was to reveal the staff who earned more than the Prime Minister, but none of the list, including Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service, (£239,999) or Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup who heads the Ministry of Defence (£244,999) earn more than the vice chancellors of Birmingham, Aston or Warwick universities.
And while the vice chancellors continue to enjoy lavish expense accounts, free accommodation and huge salaries, their universities face big cuts, even before the announcement in last week’s Budget, in which the Chancellor revealed that 25 per cent will be slashed from almost every Government department, including education.
George Osborne said that he recognised the “particular pressures” on the education system, but he did not ring-fence education spending as he did health spending.
Details of the departmental cuts will be set out in the comprehensive spending review in October, but universities and colleges are already facing £1.4 billion worth of cuts over the next three years.
And last week The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) received a revised grant letter from the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, that said specific funding for 10,000 students starting university this year will be axed from 2011-12, on top of a previously announced drop in funding.
BIS has already committed to savings of £836 million, as part of the Government’s plan to make £6.2 billion in savings for 2010-11.
Martin Machon, regional officer for the University and College Union (UCU) said hundreds of jobs had already been axed at the University of Warwick, University of Birmingham, Aston University and Birmingham City University and many more staff face redundancy.
He added: “At Birmingham we have had cuts in sociology and theology and they have ended hundreds of long term contracts.
“At BCU we have seen job losses in performing arts, English and engineering and at Warwick there has been cuts in biological sciences and hundreds of fixed term contracts will also be ended.
“The same has been happening to contracts at Aston, where there has also been cuts in audiology. The job losses is an ongoing and very worrying problem for our members, but we know it will get worse.”
Scientists at the University of Warwick’s Horticultural Research Institute unit (HRI) were told that 23 of the 44 academic staff are due to be made redundant at the centre in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. The future is unclear for the 179 remaining staff, made up of field and lab technicians, research scientists and admin.
The site carries out essential research into food crops for the UK.
Those who keep their jobs will join staff from the biological sciences department (from October 1) to work at a newly formed School of Life Sciences.
But experts at the HRI have told the university that the new department will not be enough to continue project work.
And at Birmingham University three members of teaching staff accepted voluntary redundancy after the sociology department was closed in March. Other staff were redeployed and the remaining sociologists are now based in the School of Political Science and International Studies.
Mr Machon said university staff would be shocked to learn about the huge salaries and perks awarded to their vice chancellors.
He said: “Our members will rightly be shocked and angry about this news. We know that more severe cuts are on the way to help meet those 25 per cent savings, so it is truly shocking. There have been swathes of job losses and we are told that it has been a result of funding cuts, so this is a surprise.
“I would call on them to lead by example and I would like to know if they are now going to take pay cuts, like the Prime Minister?
“I also question the Governing Bodies and the University Councils at these institutions.
“It is their job to monitor all spending at the universities and, to me, it calls into question if the proper checks and measures have been made. These are huge sums of money.
“I just do not understand how so much money is spent on items like artwork and on taxi fares at this time of austerity.”
But Colin Shaw, president of the Aston Guild of Students, defended the expenses claims and salary of his vice chancellor, Prof Julia King.
He said: “I honestly think that she deserves the pay that she gets. If you want the best you have to pay for the best.
“She probably brings in more money than she is actually paid. She is a real ambassador for Aston and has secured funding during the foreign visits you mention.
“I knew most of the details you have found, except the phone bill, and I know that she personally makes large donations to support student organisations.”
In relation to her £12,000 spend on artwork to decorate the Council Room at the university, he added: “The Council Room is the formal room the University uses for all of its meetings and official engagements. It has not been refurbished since the 1960s, the money needed to be spent on it and I think most of the art will be portraits of former vice chancellors.
“As a country I do think that every vice chancellor should be looking at their pay, but I think Aston is leading the way with these pay sacrifices and the donations that have been made at the highest level.”
>More: Vice chancellors enjoy lavish salaries and perks while universities suffer cutbacks
