The Russell Group unis with the most staff earning over £100k in 2024

UK universities are officially in their financial crisis eras. So many are cutting courses and sacking staff. But there is a harrowing amount of staff at the fancy Russell Group unis who are getting paid over £100,000 a year in 2024 – and not just at the uber-rich Oxbridge unis. I bet they’re having a nice Christmas…

Pretty much all the UK universities which pay their staff these eye-watering salaires are the fancy Russell Group unis. The non-Russell Group uni with the most staff earning over £100,000 is City, University of London. They’ve got 375 staff earning over £100k. The University of Sussex, Royal Holloway, Lancaster University and the University of Aberdeen.

These stats mostly come from Times Higher Edcuation. They didn’t have figures for the University of Birmingham, the University of Exeter, the University of Nottingham, the University of Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Sheffield. I got these numbers from each university’s most recent annual accounts, so they wouldn’t feel left out x

Bear in mind – these stats include staff who are part-time, but get paid the equivelant of over £100 a year for the hours they do. The stats for Durham and Oxbridge refer to staff employed directly by the university – there are probably plenty of other high-paid staff lurking among the colleges.

So, here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by how many staff they’re paying over £100,000 a year in 2024.

24. Queen’s University Belfast – 73

23. University of Sheffield – 142

22. Cardiff University – 157

21. University of Birmingham – 196

=19. University of Nottingham – 207

=19. Queen Mary University of London – 207

18. University of York – 234

17. Durham University – 245

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16. Newcastle University – 264

15. University of Liverpool – 288

14. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 310

13. University of Leeds – 315

12. University of Oxford – 331

11. University of Edinburgh – 343

10. University of Southampton – 359

9. University of Warwick – 383

8. University of Manchester – 426

7. University College London (UCL) – 480

6. University of Exeter – 502

5. University of Cambridge – 526

4. University of Glasgow – 533

3. University of Bristol – 560

2. King’s College London – 574

1. Imperial College London – 1,231