Edinburgh University boss who 'didn't know his own salary' spent £47k on luxury travel
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A uni boss who told MSPs he didn't know his own £421,667 salary spent £47,000 on luxury foreign junkets in just two years.
University of Edinburgh vice-chancellor and principal Sir Peter Mathieson racked up £42,456 on business class flights to destinations including South Africa, South Korea, the US and Hong Kong between March 2022 and May last year.
An investigation by the Sunday Mail uncovered £3059 spent on accommodation, and £1336 on transport in Milan, London, Texas, Brussels, Warsaw and Hong Kong from September 2023 to last July.
It comes as his lecturers are set to walk out in a dispute over a refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies as part of plans to save £140million.
The principal, who took the role in 2018, appeared at a Holyrood committee last week and claimed he didn't know how much he earned.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Miles Briggs said: 'When Sir Peter plans to cut many hundreds, and possibly more than a thousand, jobs at the University of Edinburgh, people will be surprised that there is still the budget for trips of this sort.
'International travel to promote the university may be reasonable, but it's difficult to see why it should cost tens of thousands of pounds while swingeing cuts are being made elsewhere and so many jobs could be under threat.'
Unison's lead for universities, John Mooney said: 'People are appalled by the behaviour of Scotland's university top brass. Especially when the sector is in serious debt and hard-working staff are losing their jobs.
'Chancellors and principals get paid eye-watering salaries well beyond anything their students and staff could dream of.
'I can assure you ordinary university staff don't have the luxury of not knowing what their salaries are.'
Mathieson – who earned £421,667 last year according to the uni's latest accounts – has racked up thousands on business class travel.
A total of £8458 was spent on return business flights from Heathrow to South Africa's OR Tambo airport to visit the University of the Wit-watersrand in recognition of the importance of 'partners from the global south being in attendance' at a COP27 summit in May 2022.
Expenses also included return flights from Edinburgh to South Korea which cost £8818 in May 2024. That was for a symposium aimed at fostering UK-Korea partnerships.
He also claimed £4127 for return business class flights from Edinburgh to Washington in March 2022 and New Jersey in November 2023. And £4946 was spent to fly to Hong Kong in April last year.
Holyrood committee convener Douglas Ross told Mathieson his reported six-figure package was more than the combined wages of First Minister John Swinney and PM Keir Starmer.
Mathieson said: 'The figure that is often quoted in the press is something around £400,000 a year but I don't scrutinise my slip so I don't know the exact figure.
'I don't think it's quite as high as that but I'm certainly very well paid.
'I'd need to get my P60 out to show it to you but I don't carry that figure around in my head but I'm very well paid.' .
He also confirmed he was given a five per cent pay rise last year and a 2.5 per cent increase this January
When Ross asked if, given the cuts, a reduction in his salary would be beneficial, Mathieson said: 'I've made the point in the discussions about senior team pay that you could pay the senior team of Edinburgh university nothing and it would make almost no difference to the size of the expenditure challenge we face.'
The expense figures were obtained by the Sunday Mail under Freedom of Information laws.
Prior to March 2022, the university's travel management partner was Key Travel and as a result, in the 2021/22 financial year, the university does not hold details on flight class or destination. From August 1 2021 to February 28. 2022, the university holds only the year of the transaction, cost, and travel type.
Members of the University and College Union will strike on June 20, with a five-day walkout in September.
Mooney said: 'It's highly paid bosses' incompetence that got us into this mess but it's lower paid staff who pay the cost with their jobs and low pay. Our education system is too important for Scotland's skills, jobs and economy, we need to hold these people accountable.'
The University of Edinburgh said: 'Each of these visits represent milestones for important projects and partnerships, many being the culmination of years of work by academics and professional staff from across the university.'
It said its global profile is something it is 'hugely proud of' and added: 'As the University's most senior leader, the principal's presence at such events is vital for building relationships, encouraging investment and underlining our ongoing commitment to work with partners in delivering positive change worldwide.'
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