The extortionate amounts of money Russell Group uni vice-chancellors spent on trips last year

If you’re constantly stressed your university will go bust and your life will be ruined, relax! There’s one aspect of Russell Group unis that still seems to be getting plenty of funding. Vice-chancellors of Russell Group unis are getting paid even more money than ever. According to Times Higher Education, the average pay package of Russell Group uni vice-chancellors has now hit £400,000. As well as their huge salaries and getting to live in fancy houses for free, Russell Group uni vice-chancellors spent giant amounts of money on international trips last year.

The logic behind why Russell Group university vice-chancellors get so many trips at their uni’s expense is that they need to represent the university at international meetings with other universities and potential investors. Apparently, the university can’t be represented as well via a Zoom call?

The Times found out what different university vice-chancellors claimed back on expenses in the last few years. Here’s what the Russell Group vice-chancellors spent on trips. Apparently the average Russell Group vice-chancellor claimed back £20,600 for international travel in the 2023-2024 academic year, and this is deeply humbling information.

Cardiff University

Colin Riordan left his job as the vice-chancellor of Cardiff uni in 2023. In just five months of that year, he spent £26,000 jetting off to Germany, India, South Africa and southeast Asia.

King’s College London

(Image via Shitij Kapur’s LinkedIn)

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The vice-chancellor of King’s, Shitij Kapur, managed to spend £8,000 traveling to Phoenix, Arizona. The trip lasted two days. This seems to have cost so much because he stayed in a hotel near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, which cost £500 per night. I hope the views were worth it?

University of Liverpool

Tim Jones joined Liverpool uni at the start of 2023.  He managed to spend £16,000 on travel last year. He once claimed back £2,200 for a five-night stay in a hotel in Hong Kong.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Larry Kramer became the vice-chancellor of LSE back in April. In the first three months of his job, the uni gave him £45,000 for flights and to help him relocate to the UK.

Newcastle University

Newcastle Uni looking cute
(Credit: Sarah Cossom via Creative Commons)

The uni shelled out £26,000 for Chris Day to go on international trips over the last two years.

University of Nottingham

Shearer West was the vice-chancellor at Notts from 2017 to 2024. She now works at the University of Leeds instead. West managed to spend a whopping £86,000 on flights over the last two academic years, to places including Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Santiago, Shanghai, New York, Phnom Penh and Tokyo. She must have so many stamps on her passport.

University of Oxford

(Credit: Cyrus Mower via Creative Commons)

Surprise, surprise, Oxford uni has lots of money to spend on trips. The vice-chancellor Irene Tracey spent £16,000 on international trips in the 2023-2024 academic year. 25 airport transfers cost £4,000. That’s £160 per journey to the airport.

University of Warwick

In March 2024 alone, Stuart Croft spent £643 hiring private cars in London. Apparently it was because he needed to get to Heathrow and a member of staff was ill. It’s unclear why he didn’t just get the Lizzie line.

Featured image of King’s College London by KiloCharlieLima via Creative Commons. Image was cropped. Image of Colin Riordan via his LinkedIn.