How does your university compare with others in the salary stakes? An exclusive analysis of figures by The Times Higher reveals for the first time the wide discrepancies in average academic salaries offered by different institutions.
The statistics reflect the range of factors that contribute to average academic pay at an institution. These include the proportion of young, low-paid postdoctoral researchers and highly paid clinical academics at each institution, the number of female academics and the uplift in salary for London-based staff.
There are, nonetheless, surprising variations, suggesting the influence of market forces as universities break away from nationally agreed pay scales to offer more for new talent. By contrast, some universities - such as Oxford and Cambridge - are able to lure staff with lower salaries for the privilege of working at institutions with great reputations.
Two of the country's most prestigious universities are among those offering the lowest average salaries for full-time academics in the higher education sector.
Imperial College London paid full-time academics an average of £29,982 in 2002-03, while Oxford University recorded an average of £31,000. This placed them among the five lowest payers in a table compiled from data gathered by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The figures for full-time staff include pay for clinical academics. Cambridge University also features in the bottom ten of the table, paying an average of £31,498.
A spokeswoman for Imperial said its strong international reputation attracted a high level of research funding. Consequently, it employed far more postdoctoral researchers than most universities, affecting the overall average salary. "Imperial recognises that improving pay is crucial to our ability to recruit and retain the best academic staff," she said.
"We have significantly improved pay for lecturers and professors by making adjustments to the minimum pay of lecturers, the maximum pay of senior lecturers and readers, and the minimum pay of professors."
Only two universities paid average salaries lower than Imperial's - Glasgow Caledonian paid £28,654 and Bradford £28,932.
Average salaries at 24 institutions fell into a band between £33,000 and £34,000 a year. At 21 institutions, salaries were between £32,000 and £33,000.
At the other end of the scale, the London Business School, which provides expensive MBAs and other courses to the industrial elite, offered an average salary of £99,524. If this anomalous figure is omitted, the London School of Economics offered the highest average pay at £41,656, reflecting in part the absence of postdoctoral scientists at the institution.
Many LSE job advertisements state that salary will be determined by the director, suggesting that a number of appointments are made outside national academic pay scales. The LSE may be able to do so because it generates substantial income from the large number of foreign students who pay high tuition fees.
Oxford Brookes University had the ninth highest average salary, £36,857, almost £6,000 more than Oxford. Bob Price, Oxford Brookes' director of human resources, said it had about 77 contract researchers, far fewer than Oxford's 4,000. Some 60 per cent of its staff had been there for five years or more, he added.
Another unexpected entrant in the top ten was Greenwich University, with an average salary of £37,064, just behind Cranfield University and University College London. A Greenwich spokesperson said the number of senior academic managers had been cut and there were some 445 senior and principal lecturers and professors.
The figures underline claims that academic salaries have fallen 40 per cent behind those of other professions in recent years. Roger Kline of lecturers' union Natfhe said the battle was still to be won. Lecturers in fields such as law and accounting were far behind their counterparts who practised in the corporate sector, and even senior managers in schools earned considerably more than academics. He said that academics, whose average age is higher than that of the general population, expected that their salaries should be similarly above average.
Academics v other professionals
Average salaries for April 2003
Medical prcatitioners
£66,474
Lawyer / solicitor
£49,338
Accountant
£36,351
Academic
£33,931
Secondary school teacher
£30,515
Source: Office for National Statistics and the Higher Education Statistics Agency
The average salaries also hide the plight of the thousands of lecturers employed on hourly contracts. "No other profession is so reliant on casual staff as higher education. It's akin to the building industry," Mr Kline added.
Average salaries at many institutions can be expected to rise slightly in 2003-04, in view of pay increases and drives to recruit more top-flight academics.
Average salaries among full-time academic staff (including clinical staff) in UK universities 2002-03
Institution
Female
Male
Total
% difference
between the sexes
£81,013
£102,768
£99,524
21.2
LSE
£35,539
£44,534
£41,656
20.2
City
£36,742
£41,972
£39,647
12.5
£33,107
£41,342
£37,762
19.9
UCL
£31,954
£41,100
£37,642
22.3
Cranfield
£32,076
£38,475
£37,256
16.6
Greenwich
£35,455
£37,893
£37,064
6.4
Westminster
£35,425
£37,868
£37,026
6.5
Oxford Brookes
£35,349
£37,882
£36,857
6.7
Open University
£35,234
£37,544
£36,575
6.2
South Bank
£35,154
£37,486
£36,486
6.2
Queen Mary
£33,192
£38,383
£36,479
13.5
Aston
£30,693
£38,557
£36,347
20.4
Thames Valley
£35,078
£37,172
£36,161
5.6
Royal Holloway
£32,814
£37,751
£36,060
13.1
Glasgow
£30,323
£39,102
£35,987
22.5
Kingston
£35,471
£36,056
£35,831
1.6
Leicester
£28,979
£38,182
£35,430
24.1
Essex
£30,795
£37,770
£35,343
18.5
Edinburgh
£29,548
£38,267
£35,342
22.8
Newcastle
£29,228
£37,875
£35,180
22.8
Lancaster
£30,638
£36,775
£35,134
16.7
Hull
£32,340
£36,264
£35,030
10.8
Bristol
£29,142
£37,6
£34,952
22.6
Nottingham Trent
£31,856
£36,283
£34,808
12.2
Salford
£32,997
£35,819
£34,776
7.9
Queen's Belfast
£30,9
£36,976
£34,724
18.1
Anglia Polytechnic
£33,8
£35,205
£34,620
3.9
Paisley
£33,006
£35,8
£34,443
6.4
Leeds
£30,233
£36,136
£34,378
16.3
West of England
£32,991
£35,284
£34,369
6.5
Kent
£29,440
£36,367
£34,333
19.0
Surrey, Roehampton
£33,009
£35,584
£34,1
7.2
Stirling
£31,991
£35,624
£34,249
10.2
Liverpool
£29,258
£36,518
£34,214
19.9
Strathclyde
£30,562
£35,525
£34,170
14.0
Birmingham
£29,486
£36,516
£34,160
19.3
Warwick
£30,086
£36,037
£34,143
16.5
Loughborough
£30,437
£35,082
£34,050
13.2
Ulster
£30,372
£36,026
£34,009
15.7
Keele
£30,106
£36,312
£33,963
17.1
Middlesex
£31,987
£35,452
£33,952
9.8
Plymouth
£30,428
£35,643
£33,911
14.6
Hertfordshire
£32,369
£35,181
£33,860
8.0
De Montfort
£32,030
£34,759
£33,856
7.9
Sheffield
£29,875
£35,853
£33,843
16.7
Luton
£31,643
£35,193
£33,741
10.1
Leeds Metropolitan
£32,794
£34,285
£33,729
4.3
Brighton
£32,404
£34,678
£33,720
6.6
East London
£31,612
£35,203
£33,718
10.2
Brunel
£31,599
£34,760
£33,673
9.1
Surrey
£30,763
£35,161
£33,643
12.5
St Andrews
£,307
£35,634
£33,515
23.4
Southampton
£29,690
£35,167
£33,443
15.6
Aberdeen
£28,538
£36,511
£33,391
21.8
Huddersfield
£31,546
£34,264
£33,288
7.9
Liverpool John Moores
£32,042
£33,912
£33,285
5.5
Wales, Swansea
£29,016
£34,935
£33,261
16.9
Bath
£28,406
£34,890
£33,203
18.6
Dundee
£28,448
£36,239
£33,202
21.5
Cardiff
£,619
£35,821
£33,189
22.9
Manchester
£28,548
£35,739
£33,132
20.1
Nottingham
£28,934
£35,064
£33,097
17.5
Abertay Dundee
£30,501
£34,408
£33,070
11.4
Birkbeck College
£31,356
£34,015
£32,999
7.8
Exeter
£28,649
£34,788
£32,924
17.6
Staffordshire
£31,284
£33,804
£32,920
7.5
Durham
£29,597
£33,956
£32,863
12.8
Portsmouth
£29,585
£34,357
£32,753
13.9
Sheffield Hallam
£30,846
£33,778
£32,747
8.7
Wales, Lampeter
£,258
£36,157
£32,742
24.6
Robert Gordon
£31,103
£33,875
£32,722
8.2
Sunderland
£31,168
£33,508
£32,719
7.0
Gloucestershire
£31,050
£33,621
£32,711
7.6
Sussex
£29,869
£33,973
£32,708
12.1
Heriot-Watt
£28,139
£33,766
£32,697
16.7
Wolverhampton
£30,893
£33,844
£32,609
8.7
UMIST
£28,110
£33,797
£32,593
16.8
Napier
£31,508
£33,055
£32,506
4.7
Central Lancashire
£30,981
£33,484
£32,451
7.5
Reading
£,709
£34,669
£32,345
20.1
Northumbria
£31,022
£33,097
£32,244
6.3
Wales, Bangor
£28,022
£34,526
£32,199
18.8
East Anglia
£28,816
£34,155
£32,174
15.6
York
£28,511
£33,667
£32,084
15.3
Lincoln
£29,404
£33,193
£31,896
11.4
Bournemouth
£29,869
£32,905
£31,772
9.2
Teesside
£30,506
£32,622
£31,721
6.5
Coventry
£29,383
£33,0
£31,719
11.0
Central England
£30,366
£32,134
£31,522
5.5
Cambridge
£,439
£33,473
£31,498
18.0
Wales, Aberystwyth
£26,773
£33,309
£31,487
19.6
Manchester Metropolitan
£29,360
£32,610
£31,344
10.0
Glamorgan
£28,867
£32,190
£31,108
10.3
Oxford
£,331
£32,857
£31,000
16.8
Derby
£29,126
£31,077
£30,3
6.3
Imperial College
£24,952
£32,260
£29,982
22.7
Bradford
£,117
£29,845
£28,932
9.1
Glasgow Caledonian
£25,892
£30,848
£28,654
16.1
Related story
Women suffer £5K pay gap