Oxford University has committed to publishing the expense claims of vice chancellor Louise Richardson on its website, following calls for transparency over her and other senior staff’s remuneration.
The move will see the existing expenses of Richardson – who has defended her pay against popular backlash, once comparing her £350,000 salary to those of footballers and bankers – published later this year, with future claims being made public on a rolling basis. However, the University declined to provide details on whether they would be giving a detailed breakdown of expenses as has been requested by Cherwell, as opposed to the records being itemised by generalised categories.
Cherwell understands the University currently has no plans to publish the expense claims of the pro vice-chancellors and other senior staff.
Last year, Cherwell revealed that nearly £70,000 had been spent on Richardson’s expenses since she became vice chancellor, including nearly £29,969 on air travel – nearly four times than the average £7,762 claimed by university vice chancellors in 2017/18.
A University spokesperson told Cherwell: “The vice-chancellor was concerned about the amount of time staff were spending answering multiple FOI requests about her expenses so she decided she would post them on the website.
Going forward her office will post them by month on a quarterly basis.”
The University FoI team has failed to respond to requests in a timely manner for most of this year, with some passing well past the statutory deadline of twenty working days to more than 4 months.
Last term, Cherwell revealed some of the expense claims of Oxford heads of college.
While this shed some transparency into college expense claim policies – with some college heads splashing the cash on luxury hotels and gentlemen’s clubs – most colleges failed to give comprehensive responses to FoI requests on the matter.
