Revealed: The Russell Group unis where vice-chancellors got the highest pay rises last year

While students struggle to afford essentials such as rent and caramel lattes, the vice-chancellors of all the Russell Group unis are getting paid even more money than ever. Here’s a deep dive into how much of a pay rise all the Russell Group uni vice-chancellors got last year. Warning: these numbers are tragically high.

According to Times Higher Education, the average salary for a university vice-chancellor is now £327,000 – 3.5 per cent higher than it was last year. The vice-chancellors of fancy Russell Group unis generally get paid much more than that.

Unsurprisingly, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge got the biggest pay rise. It’s no secret that Oxbridge is rolling in cash. What is quite rogue is that the vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield got the second-highest payrise. The Uni of Sheffield has had rather a lot of financial problems this year, and made staff redundant.

Remember – the salaries are just the start of how much money vice-chancellors get. Many also claim back tens of thousands of pounds in expenses, and get to live in fancy houses for free.

A few of the Russell Group unis got new vice-chancellors mid-year, and it didn’t seem fair to rank them among all the others. So, I’ve listed how much the new vice-chancellors at these unis now get paid at the bottom of this article instead.

So, here is how much of a pay rise all the vice-chancellors of Russell Group unis got between the 2022/2023 academic year and the 2023/2024 academic year. This information comes from painstakingly reading through each uni’s finanical reports.

=16. Imperial College London – £0

Imperial’s vice-chancellor, Hugh Brady
(Credit: Thomas Angus, Imperial College London)

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The president of Imperial’s salary has stayed the same as last year – £375,000. The president actually ended up with less money than they did before. In 2023, Hugh Brady’s total remuneration was £476,000, but in 2024 it was £461,000. This is because he donated a pay award he was offered to the Student Hardship Fund instead.

=16. University of Manchester – £0

The vice-chancellor’s base salary has stayed the same – £260,399.

15. University of Birmingham – £9,488

The vice-chancellor’s salary increased slightly from £342,000 to £351,488

14. Cardiff University – £12,000

Cardiff didn’t publish any more financial statements at the end of 2024, but their most recent financial statements say the vice-chancellor was paid a salary of £289,000 in 2022 and £301,000 in 2023.

13. University of Nottingham – £12,320

Shearer West’s base salary was £311,080 in 2023, then £323,400. Nottingham paid her a grand total of £368,201 that year.

=12. Newcastle University – £13,000

Newcastle hasn’t published its financial report for 2024 yet. In 2023, the vice-chancellor’s salary went up from £328,000 to £341,200. The uni gave him an eye-watering total of £404,300 that year.

=12. University of Warwick – £13,000

It’s not exactly the prettiest Russell Group uni, is it
(Credit: Steve Walton via Creative Commons)

Stuart Croft got £326,000 in 2023, then £339,000 in 2024. The uni provides him with a house and a car, so he ended up with £384,000 in 2024.

11. Queen Mary University of London – £13,026

Colin Bailey’s salary was £328,922 in 2023, then £341,948 in 2024. His total remuneration including pensions in 2024 was £361,108.

10. University of York – £13,861

Charlie Jeffery got £296,507 in 2023, and £310,368 in 2024.

9. University of Bristol – £14,250

Bristol paid their vice-chancellor a salary of £285,000 in 2023, then £299,250 in 2024.

8. University of Exeter – £15,000

The vice-chancellor of Exetaaah’s salary increased from £290,000 to £305,000. Professor Roberts ended up with a total of £361,000 in the 2023/2024 academic year, which is actually less than the £405,000 she got the year before, because she chose not to accept money from the Executive Performance Reward Scheme.

7. University of Southampton – £16,000

Mark Smith’s base salary was £316,000 in 2023, then £332,000 in 2024. The uni paid him a grand total of £394,000 that year.

6. University of Edinburgh – reportedly £17,400

So, Edinburgh is yet to publish their accounts for the last year. We don’t know exactly what the vice-chancellor Peter Mathieson’s salary is. But it was reported near the end of 2024 that he had accepted a five per cent pay rise. His salary was £348,000 in 2023, so it might be about £365,400 now?

A university spokesperson didn’t tell  The Scotsman what the vice-chancellors exact salary is, but said, “The five per cent relates to the 2022/23 academic year and is the same five per cent UCEA [Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association] pay increase that was awarded to all staff and paid in two instalments.”

=4. King’s College London – £18,000

Shitij Kapur’s salary jumped from £295,000 to £313,000. He ended up with a total of £428,000 in the 2023/2024 academic year.

=4. University College London (UCL) – £18,000

Michael Spence, the vice-chancellor of UCL
(Image via his LinkedIn)

Michael Spence’s base salary was £380,500 in 2023. It went up to £398,500 in 2024. UCL gives him rather a lot of “taxable benefits in kind”, so the uni paid him a total of £518,800 in 2024.

3. Queen’s University Belfast – £21,000

Ian Greer was paid £330,000 in 2023, then £351,000 in 2024.

2. University of Sheffield – £23,650

Sheffield’s vice-chancellor got £306,350 in 2023, then £330,000 in 2024.

1. University of Cambridge – £36,000

Surprise surprise, Oxbridge is loaded. The Cambridge vice-chancellor’s salary shot up from £384,000 to £420,000. The total remuneration of the vice-chancellor in 2024 was a truly eye-watering £577,000.

Russell Group unis which swapped vice-chancellor mid-year

Durham University

Durham’s vice-chancellor, Karen O’Brien (Image via her LinkedIn)

Durham paid their last vice-chancellor a salary of £164,000 for five months of work in 2022. Their new vice-chancellor gets £290,000 a year.

University of Glasgow 

So, the last vice-chancellor of Glasgow was paid £334,000 a year. The Lancaster Guardian reported that Glasgow’s new vice-chancellor Andy Schofield will get paid £400,000 a year. This is £165,000 more than what he earned for being the vice-chancellor of Lancaster University.

University of Leeds

The vice-chancellor salaries for the Uni of Leeds are pretty hard to compare because the vice-chancellor swapped mid-year. Simone Buitendijk got a salary of £330,000 in the 2022/2023 year. She was paid £87,000 of her salary for working from August to October 2023. The uni ended up giving her £434,000 in the 2023/2024 academic year. The interim vice-chancellor Hai-Sui-Yu was paid a salary of £260,000 for working from November 2023 to July 2024.

University of Liverpool

A vibey pic of Liverpool
(Credit: Phil Nash via Creative Commons)

Right, so the last vice-chancellor left in the middle of 2023. The uni spent a total of £300,900 on her salary and the salary of the new vice-chancellor, Tim Jones. His base salary is now £294,000. He ended up with a total of £340,200 including benefits.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

The last vice-chancellor was on a salary of £380,000. In the 2023/2024 academic year, LSE paid the interim vice-chancellor a salary of £195,000 and the new vice-chancellor £132,000. That’s a total of £327,000.

University of Oxford

Irene Tracey’s base salary in 2024 was £410,000. Really. Oxford swapped vice-chancellors in 2023, but paid Professor Tracey and Professor Richardson a combined total of £408,000 on salaries. Professor Richardson also got a bonus £423,000 payment in lieu of a sabbatical.