Timothy Devinney,
professor of international business, Leeds University Business School
Do you want to hire the best people you can locally, or do you want to compete in a global market? Because the UK system is so centralised, there’s a tendency to look on universities the way you would at any other governmental bureaucracy: the taxpayer is funding their salaries and so pay needs to be in line. But UK universities are expected be in the top 100 worldwide. Oxford University is supposed to compete with Harvard and Stanford – but the vice-chancellors of Stanford and Harvard make a lot more. When you look at it from that standpoint, I would almost go as far as to say that the vice-chancellors of the best UK universities may be significantly underpaid.
Paul Temple,
reader emeritus in higher education, UCL Institute of Education
We don’t need a rigid formula to determine pay – each university has its own priorities and circumstances. But governing bodies should take a more robust view. The gap between even senior people in universities and vice-chancellors is opening up in a way that is potentially very harmful. Vice-chancellor salaries are way above what a senior professor would get. How can you can exercise leadership when you are financially in a completely different world from your senior colleagues?
Sarah Tuckey,
final year, French and European studies, Nottingham Trent University
One employee’s salary shouldn’t increase rapidly, when the majority of the work force’s pay hasn’t changed. I’ve seen lecturers’ roles grow, the demands from students are higher and there is now a very quick turnaround for marking assignments. None of this is reflected in their pay. Students find vice-chancellors’ salary so galling because we don’t get to see where our tuition fees go. There should be a limit on pay.
Tom Johnstone,
professor of psychology, University of Reading
There is a lot of justification for having a formula to determine pay. People will claim they could be earning more if they went out into private enterprise, but then you do doubt that many of them would be working in corporate roles. A number of universities pay their lowest paid workers less than the living wage – I don’t think that is justifiable.
Luke Martell,
professor of political sociology, Sussex university
Vice-chancellors’ pay should be tied to the lowest paid workers. It’s about fairness, managers’ legitimacy, and community. Vice-chancellor income doesn’t relate to performance, like positions in league tables or staff satisfaction. PhD tutors are on poverty pay, and workers outsourced by senior managers take cuts to their pensions and conditions.
Interviews by Rebecca Ratcliffe
