· Ahead of
report on university heads’ pay and perks, union names the
institutions ignoring Freedom of Information requests
· Union
has reported eight to the Information Commissioner’s Office and
warned others to review their practices
· UCU
says it’s unacceptable for universities receiving taxpayers’
money to escape scrutiny
The University and College Union (UCU) has
today (Wednesday) named and shamed the UK’s least transparent
universities.
A total of 13 institutions* refused to provide
details of the vice-chancellor’s pay and perks in response to a
Freedom of Information (FoI) request from the union. The full
list is below and includes some repeat offenders.
Five of those institutions used exemptions
under the FoI Act to avoid answering all questions asked by the
union. UCU has written to those institutions asking them to
review their refusal decisions.
The other eight institutions failed to provide
any response at all to UCU’s request or follow-up attempt. The
union has reported them to the Information Commissioner’s
Office.
University vice-chancellors’ pay and perks
have long been a source of frustration for staff and government
ministers, with huge sums of public money being squandered
on hefty salary
increases and top class
travel.
The union said greater sanctions were needed
to ensure universities justified some of the largesse that has
embarrassed higher education in recent years.
The union will be releasing its latest pay and
perks survey later this month and said that universities should
not escape the spotlight by refusing to answer legitimate
questions about their finances and how they spend public
money.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘Freedom of
Information legislation is important in holding universities that
spend millions of pounds of public money to account.
‘Students and their families are spending more
than ever on the costs of going to university with tuition fees
set to rise even higher at some institutions from September. In
this context, universities should be as open as possible about
their spending.
‘It is not acceptable that some universities simply refuse
to comply with the law by dodging Freedom of Information
requests. We believe the time has come for a national register of
pay and perks in our universities. We have written to the
Information Commissioner’s Office and we would like to see greater sanctions on those
universities that blatantly ignore these requests or try to
wriggle out of their responsibilities with exemptions.’
* Eight of the 161 institutions failed
to respond to UCU’s FoI request:
University of Bolton (also failed to respond last year)
University of Coventry (used an exemption last year to avoid
answering any questions)
University of Cranfield
Edge Hill University (also failed to respond last year)
University of Roehampton
Rose Bruford College (also failed to respond last
year)
University of Southampton (also failed to respond last
year)
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Five institutions used exemptions
under the FoI Act to avoid answering all
questions:
Anglia Ruskin (failed to respond at all last year)
Birmingham City University
University of Hull
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
University of St Andrews
