The five Russell Group unis where your lecturers are paid the least money

If you think making it to your 9ams is rough, spare a thought for the lecturers who have to turn up to 9ams every single day. A lot of Russell Group lecturers are paid way less than you’d think. It’s not really a shock that the staff at so many Russell Group unis will be striking in 2025.

The Higher Educations Statistics Agency (HESA) has published detailed data on exactly what all the academic staff at different UK universities get paid.

The statistics are split into pay bands. Thankfully, no full-time academic staff are being paid less than £22,681 anymore. But a handful of Russell Group unis do pay some full-time academic staff between £22,681 and £28,759 a year. Some of these are so unexpected. No wonder so many lecturers seem to permanently be in a bad mood.

The Russell Group university which pays its lecturers the least is Queen’s University Belfast. 25 academic staff there are making less than £28,759 a year. What’s really surprising is that the University of Cambridge makes the list. You’d think that a university with so much money would be able to boost the staff’s salaries a bit?

This data refers to the 2023/2024 academic year, because that’s the most up-to-date information HESA has.

So, here are the five Russell Group unis which pay your lecturers the least, plus the number of full-time staff earning between £22,681 and £28,759 a year.

University of Birmingham – 5 academic staff

University of Cambridge – 15 academic staff

Durham University – 5 academic staff

University of Edinburgh – 5 academic staff

Queen’s University Belfast – 25 academic staff

For more news about UK universities, like The Tab on Facebook.