The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) has revealed that there
was an average of 4,112 staff at
British universities taking home over £100,000 each year
between 2019 and 2020, an increase of 14 per
cent from the previous year. It comes after Vice
Chancellors demanded a £2 billion government bailout this spring,
and encouraged students to return to university halls in
September before teaching then moved online.
The London School of
Economics had the most high earners, where
306 staff received over £100,000 in total
remuneration, 109 of which received over
£150,000.
The report highlights there is no correlation between the
number of highly paid staff at a university and it achieving
excellent student satisfaction rates, questioning universities’
value for money.
Universities are funded by both taxpayers and students
(including graduates) directly. Because of this mixed form of
funding, the university sector is spared the scrutiny usually
applied to other institutions.
The figures should encourage students to press for the best
value from their tuition fees, as well as help taxpayers hold
universities to account for the money they are
spending.
Key Findings:
-
In 2019-20, there were at least
4,112 university staff with total
remuneration of more than
£100,000. Within this group, there
were 860 on more
than £150,000.
-
This compares to 3,615
and 762 respectively
in 2018-19. This represents
an increase of 14 per cent for
those on more than £100,000 and 13 per cent for those on more
than £150,000 in total remuneration
-
The university with the greatest number of
employees whose remuneration was in excess of
£100,000 was the London
School of Economics, with
306 employees. This was also the
university which had the highest number of employees
receiving over £150,000
at 109.
-
The average number of
employees who received over
£100,000 in total remuneration per
university is 44. The average
number receiving over £150,000
is 9 employees per
university.
-
The Open University
made loss of office payments
totalling £347,696, the
highest single pay out being
£128,575.
Scott Simmonds, researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance
and author of the paper, said:
"These rankings reveal the thousands of
university bosses taking home very plush pay packets despite
begging for a covid bailout.
"Taxpayers and students will be left with more than a
degree of uncertainty over whether this is money well spent -
especially when students are paying a premium to be locked up in
halls with no face-to-face teaching.
"Instead of blaming covid, uni bosses need to get these
steep salaries under control and focus on providing students with
the very best higher education they can during the pandemic."
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