More v-cs get six appeal

The six-figure vice chancellor is close to becoming the norm as pay for heads of institutions continues to rise.

This year's THES pay survey, the third, shows that 61 heads of institutions - including 46 of the 103 members of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, were paid Pounds 100,000 or more in 1995/96. Figures are taken from institutions' annual reports for that year. This compares to 44 in six figures, including 29 CVCP members, in 1994/95.

As this is the second year since disclosure of top salaries was made compulsory this is the first survey in which direct previous-year comparison is possible. This shows that median pay for members of the CVCP rose from Pounds 92,000 in 1994/95 to Pounds 97,000 in 1995/96 - an increase of 5.5 per cent.

Thirteen members of the CVCP received increases of 10 per cent or more, with the largest percentage increase going to James Wright of Newcastle University, up 22 per cent from Pounds 81,000 to Pounds 99,000. David Johns, vice chancellor of Bradford University, received more than 10 per cent for the second year running.

David Triesman, general secretary of the Association of University Teachers, which settled this week for a pay increase of 5.8 per cent over two years, said: "Median pay rises for vice chancellors in what they tell us is a dreadful year are twice what they awarded their staff. These rises have been approved by university remuneration committees using comparability data, just like pay review. I believe in the right pay and the right methodology for academic and related jobs, but I do wonder why it took ten months to inch forward to our likely settlement."

Diana Warwick, chief executive of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, said: "Vice chancellors' salaries are negotiated individually. They remain considerably below those for chief executives of other multimillion pound corporations, public or private."

Vice chancellors are not the highest paid people in the university sector. The highest paid vice chancellor, Sir Kenneth Green of Manchester Metropolitan, who received Pounds 129,413, trailed six other heads of institution - four medical. Sir Kenneth retires in September. The lowest paid vice chancellors are Derec Llwyd Morgan of Aberystwyth and Keith Robbins of Lampeter, both on Pounds 68,000.

The highest salaries, both for bosses and individual academics, are in specialised business or medical institutions. George Bain, principal of London Business School - third in the list with Pounds 136,000 - said: "There are two or three people here who make more. The increases are a consequence of policies of competing internationally for the best staff, and performance-related pay."

LBS has the highest-paid individual academics in Britain. One member of staff received more than Pounds 180,000 in 1995/96 (including 18.5 per cent employers' pension contributions) and two others more than Pounds 170,000. One employee at Imperial College received Pounds 160,000. Medical academics, whose pay incorporates both university and NHS elements, account for the bulk of the 158 academics other than heads of institutions who received six-figure salaries last year. More than 3,000 university staff are paid over Pounds 50,000.

* Pay for chief executives and chairman of educational quangos has soared over the last eight years, Parliamentary answers have revealed. Don Foster, Liberal Democrat education and employment spokesman, found that chief executives' pay has risen 165 per cent to an average of Pounds 1,451 per week since 1987/88 while chairmen, who work an average 1.6 days per week, have had rises of 146 per cent to Pounds 452 per week. The data cover the Further and Higher Education funding councils and the Teacher Training Agency. Mr Foster hopes to obtain individual data.