The departing vice-chancellor of one of the UK’s smaller universities was paid more than £800,000 in her final year in the role, of which over half was “compensation for loss of office”.
Bath Spa University paid Christina Slade a £429,000 golden handshake when she stepped down from the role earlier this year, on top of her annual salary of £250,000, according to the university’s financial statements.
Slade, who is now an emeritus professor at the university, received an additional £89,000 in pension contributions, plus a housing allowance of £20,000, and further £20,000 for “other benefits in kind”, bringing total payments up to £808,000 for the 2016/17 academic year.
The payment – first reported by THE magazine – is thought to be a record for the higher education sector and is likely to fuel further anger about excessive vice-chancellor pay. Dame Glynis Breakwell, vice chancellor of nearby Bath University, was forced to step down last week following an outcry over her £468,000 pay package.
Attention has subsequently focused on the vice chancellor of Southampton University, Sir Christopher Snowden, and his £433,000 annual salary. Academics at Birmingham University have also publicly protested about their vice-chancellor, Sir David Eastwood’s £426,000 salary.
Bath Spa University, which has around 7,000 students, issued a statement defending Slade’s pay-off after more than five years of service. “Having taken legal advice the university paid Professor Slade a sum which reflected her contractual and statutory entitlements and was considered to represent value for money,” it said.
It said the vice-chancellor did not sit on the university’s remuneration committee and added that Bath Spa had become one of the UK’s leading creative universities over the last five to 10 years by way of further justifying Slade’s payment.
“Financially sound, [the university] has invested heavily in developing outstanding facilities, generated a significant increase in research activity and become increasingly international in its outlook and activities.”
Despite the increasingly international profile of UK universities and the growing demands of Brexit in the higher education sector, many academic staff at institutions around the country remain unconvinced that the highest-paid executives are good value for money.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union which represents university workers, said: “We are seeing what happens when decisions are taken in secret without proper checks and balances.
“This simply cannot be allowed to continue; we need an urgent overhaul of how senior pay and perks are determined, and how our universities are governed.”
Former Labour education minister Andrew Adonis, who has led the charge against Breakwell and others, tweeted: “Every day brings another VC pay scandal.”
Bath Spa’s pay-off may attract a complaint to a university regulator, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), as the retirement agreement for the vice chancellor of the University of Bath has already done.
Madeleine Atkins, Hefce’s chief executive, replied on Wednesday to the organisation’s critics over accusations it had failed to do enough to curb high pay among university leaders.
“We are not legally empowered to tell a university how much to pay its vice-chancellor or senior staff. Parliament does not permit it,” Atkins wrote, saying Hefce’s hands were tied other than investigating corporate governance.
The universities minister, Jo Johnson, has called on universities to restrain pay for senior management after UCU research showed that the average pay for vice-chancellors had risen to £278,000 in 2015-16.
