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| Alice Gast’s package at Imperial College rose by 36 per cent to £714,000 by last summer |
The average total pay package for a vice-chancellor in the
elite Russell Group of 24 universities increased by 6 per cent to £413,000 in
2021-22. The packages include payments for grace-and-favour housing, pensions
and other benefits on top of a basic salary.
Alice Gast, who stepped down as president of Imperial
College London in July, leads the salary rankings, according to Sunday Times
analysis of recently published accounts. Gast was given a pay and benefits
package of £714,000 to the end of July 2022, an increase of 35.5 per cent.
Oxford University’s outgoing vice-chancellor, Dame Louise
Richardson, was handed an 18 per cent increase last year, pushing her package
to £542,000, according to analysis by The Sunday Times.
And Baroness Shafik, director of the London School of
Economics (LSE), received £539,000 in pay and perks, up 10.9 per cent on the
previous year.
Imperial College London said its remuneration is ‘designed
to attract and retain the people we need to maintain our position as a
world-leading institution’.
Oxford said the vice-chancellor’s pay had increased to
reflect rising staff and student numbers and the fact that its income had more
than doubled. The LSE said the increase ‘largely related to a return to the
director’s base salary, following a 20 per cent voluntary cut during the
pandemic’.