Don't bank on it

No great surprises at the top end of The THES table of vice chancellors' pay, but our researcher thought momentarily he was on to an income to strike envy into George Graham, Nick Leeson and the entire court of governors of the Bank of England combined.

Taken strictly at face value, the University of Derby financial statement for 1993/94 purports to say that vice chancellor Roger Waterhouse pulled in a little matter of Pounds 8.986 million in 1992/93. Reality sadly dawned when it became obvious that the 1993/94 column was empty and a faulty space function had fused the two figures, expressed as Pounds 000s, into one. A pity not only for the estimable Professor Waterhouse, but for those who look forward to the day when even the confirmed cynics of the Public Accounts Committee are struck dumb by some epic outbreak of cupidity.