Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, is the third highest renumerated university adminstrator in the UK, according to a study published by the University and College Union (UCU).
The report, published on Tuesday by UCU, analysed 155 higher education institutes. It found that university leaders enjoyed an average salary of £260,290 in 2013-14. However, 16 per cent of institutions contacted either didn’t respond to the union’s Freedom of Information request or exercised exemptions. Oxford chose to use an exemption over travel and passed on redacted minutes of its renumeration committee.
Nottingham Trent University’s Vice-Chancellor, Neil Gorman, was found to be the highest paid administrator, receiving £623,000, including all accrued bonuses. Andrew Hamilton was ranked third, earning a salary of £442,000. However, once Gorman’s five years of accrued bonuses and pension are stripped out, Hamilton enjoys the highest base salary of any UK Vice-Chancellor. The University did not release the size of Hamilton’s bonus.
A UCU spokesperson told Cherwell, “What concerns us most is the utterly arbitrary nature of pay increases in universities and the complete lack of transparency. Why should one Vice-Chancellor enjoy an inflation-busting double digit pay rise while others secure more modest releases? What we need to see is a far more open system of governance. We want student and staff representatives on the committees that set senior pay in our universities and full disclosure of the minutes of those meetings.”
The study also found that Oxford has 396 employees earning between £100,000 and £399,999. Of these, 274 were in the bracket £100,000 to £149,000 and a further 88 in the £150,000 to £199,999 region. Only UCL employed more high-earning staff, with 429 employees earning in excess of £100,000.
Fergal O’Dwyer, Chairman of the Oxford Living Wage Campaign, commented, “We deal regularly with the University’s lowest paid members of staff, and hear about how difficult it is for them to make ends meet. The disparity in pay, in quality of life, between these workers and those, like Hamilton, on the highest end of the University’s pay scale makes me embarrassed to be an Oxford student.”
Hamilton emerged as the fourth highest spender on air fares of all university Vice-Chancellors. In the year 2013-14, £34,210.71 was spent on flights for the Vice-Chancellor. The University did not provide information on expenditure on Business and First Class flights, nor their proportion in overall expenditure. The average spend on air fares for vice-chancellors was only £9,705.75 and the percentage of overall flight expenditure spent on business and first class flights during 2013/14 was 67.6 per cent.
A spokesperson for the University told Cherwell that Hamilton’s salary reflects the high standing of the university as the top in the country.
When questioned on the Vice-Chancellor’s air travel, the University responded, “Given that Oxford is one of the great international universities, overseas travel is an important part of the Vice-Chancellor’s role in maintaining the University’s globally competitive position.”
