Russell Group vice-chancellors’ average pay packages have hit £400,000, despite the financial crisis in UK higher education.

Analysis of the 2023-24 accounts of 19 members of the prestigious mission group published to date show that the median pay package of vice-chancellors – which typically also includes benefits such as housing and pensions – was £400,000 in 2023-24.

This was up 1 per cent on the figure of £396,000 across the same 19 institutions in 2022-23, and a 5 per cent increase over two years.

Front-line higher education staff received a minimum pay rise of 5 per cent in 2023-24.

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However, the final average vice-chancellor pay rise across all 24 Russell Group members – and across the sector as a whole – will not be known until early next year.

The extent of the financial crisis in UK higher education is being laid bare by the publication of 2023-24 accounts, which reveal large deficits at a number of universities, including Russell Group members. Many institutions are making job cuts.

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The university allocating the most to vice-chancellor pay out of the 19 analysed to date was the University of Leeds, which spent £694,000 on its two leaders during 2023-24. As Times Higher Education has reported, former vice-chancellor Simone Buitendijk left with a final pay packet worth £434,000, including £288,000 in “contractual post-employment notice pay” and “compensation for loss of office”.

The largest individual total remuneration went to Deborah Prentice at the University of Cambridge.

Her remuneration package of £577,000 for her first full year as vice-chancellor included a base salary of £409,000, along with £42,486 in relation to relocation expenses, £29,177 in accommodation, utilities and property taxes, and personal travel costs of £22,564.

This was followed by £573,000 for Irene Tracey at the University of Oxford, who received a salary of £410,000, and an accommodation payment worth £100,000.

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The vice-chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge also received the largest base salaries of the group, followed by Michael Spence at University College London (£398,000).

The median vice-chancellor salary paid by the 19 Russell Group members stood at £327,000 last year – up 3.5 per cent from £316,000 in 2022-23. It was also 9 per cent more than the £300,000 that the same universities paid in 2020-21.

The London School of Economics and Political Science paid a total of £528,000 to interim vice-chancellor Eric Neumayer and his permanent successor, Larry Kramer. Within that, the institution paid Professor Neumayer £47,000 for working in the LSE summer school and for an annual review, while Professor Kramer received £47,000 in a joining fee.

The lowest total package was again at the University of Manchester, where Dame Nancy Rothwell received £268,000 in her final year as vice-chancellor.

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com