University vice-chancellors are paid far more than public sector

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University vice-chancellors are paid far more than public sector peers

Analysis by the Guardian shows vice-chancellors’ salaries outstrip those of leaders of NHS trusts and local authorities

Vice-chancellors’ pay at British universities has far outstripped that of their peers in senior leadership roles elsewhere across the public sector, according to research conducted by the Guardian.

Analysis of the salaries of vice-chancellors at leading universities shows they are paid well above the chief executives of NHS hospital trusts and local authorities in a number of cities in England.

The £185,000 pay of the chief executive of Birmingham city council – the largest local authority in Europe, with gross annual expenditure of £3bn – was less than half that of the University of Birmingham’s vice-chancellor, Sir David Eastwood, on £378,000.

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Eastwood also chairs the Universities Superannuation Scheme – for which he earns an additional £90,000 – and is a board member of the Universities UK group, at the heart of the bitter dispute over staff pensions that has provoked strikes in more than 60 universities in recent weeks.

The issue of high pay for university vice-chancellors has come under intense scrutiny in recent months, with members of the government from the prime minister downwards expressing their concern, but so far there have been few signs of change.