06-05-2025
Bosses of failing universities on bumper salaries to be ‘named and shamed'
The vice-chancellors of the UK's worst-performing universities will be 'named and shamed' for their salaries while failing to provide opportunities for graduates.
League tables are to be published of institutions where students are not going on to good jobs or further education, under plans from the Department for Education.
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, will aim to stop 'blasé' universities 'letting down' graduates, The Times has reported.
The department has concerns that the universities have become unaccountable 'ivory towers' in which vice-chancellors are rewarded with increasing salaries despite poor results for students.
The DfE is also planning to call for more evidence to show how students' job prospects are being improved with better value for money, for universities to retain their licence to operate.
The list of 20 worst-performing universities, which used data showing the percentage of students who 'progress' into graduate jobs or higher education, was topped by the London School of Science & Technology (LSST).
Only 40 per cent of those attending went on to graduate jobs or further education, according to the Office for Students, but Ali Jafar Zaidi, LSST's head, was paid £338,757 last year.
On average, the top 20 worst-performing universities paid their vice-chancellors £280,000, with one receiving as much as £361,000.
A Whitehall source told The Times: 'A hard rain is going to fall on universities that continue to be so blasé about executive pay increases while letting down students.
'This Government is determined to deliver greater value for money and better prospects for graduates as part of its Plan for Change.
'The days of the unaccountable ivory tower are over. Funding for universities will only come with the promise of major reform.
'We're going to ensure degrees deliver good jobs and opportunities, that teaching is high-quality, that universities offer good opportunities for people and help to drive up economic growth.'
Elsewhere, Prof Michael Harkin, the vice-chancellor and principal of University College Birmingham – where 49 per cent of pupils went on to graduate jobs or further education – was paid £310,000.
The highest paid was Prof Jean-Noël Ezingeard, the vice-chancellor of the University of Roehampton, who was paid £361,000 last year, despite the university being rated seventh worst for graduate progression.
The Government is looking at increasing the 'conditions of registration' in what would also strengthen requirements to improve the quality of teaching.
However, Prof David Maguire, the vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia, said that the correlation between the salary of bosses and student outcomes was 'pretty tenuous'.
Prof Maguire, who has overseen a 75 per cent progression rating, added: 'These depend on many things, not least the quality of the students coming and the subjects they study and their interest in obtaining jobs.
'Is that really the way we want to run the sector, with crude metrics? It's reducing and simplifying complexities to a single soundbite and trying to bully people in an argument doesn't seem a satisfactory way of doing it.'
