Ranked: The Russell Group unis paying the most lecturers over £100k in 2025

UK students are constantly struggling for money, since rent is so stupidly expensive and tuition fees are going up. But plenty of our lecturers are laughing all the way to the bank. Here are the Russell Group unis that pay the most lecturers upwards of £100,000 a year.

Lots of staff at Russell Group unis are really worried about their jobs being cut in 2025. Lots of lecturers are striking about it over the next few months. But even though several of the fanciest Russell Group unis are struggling for money write now, lots of professors and senior management staff are raking in wild amounts of money each year.

Some Oxbridge colleges literally have more money than Taylor Swift, so it’s not surprising that the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford pay their staff lots of money. At Cambridge, a mind-blowing six staff members make more than £300,000 a year. But Oxbridge don’t actually pay their staff the most. The Russell Group uni that pays the most staff over £100,000 a year is actually University College London (UCL), where over a thousand staff members are making this amount of money.

Remember – when it comes to the pay of senior staff at universities, salaries are only the tip of the iceberg. Many senior management staff will also be getting huge pensions, chonky bonuses, generous expenses allowance and free housing.

The data comes from each university’s most recent financial accounts, and refers to the 2023/2025 academic year. These numbers are the full time equivalent (FTE) of staff. The data includes people who also work for the NHS, but not the money they get from the NHS. Staff who left or joined part way through the year don’t count.

Most Read

Good lord, Bonnie Blue opened up about what Beavo was like in bed and I’m traumatised

Dave dated another MAFS Australia 2025 bride before the show and you’ll never guess who

A former flatmate of Jacqui from MAFS Australia speaks out about what she was like to live with

So, here are all the Russell Group unis ranked by how many staff they pay over £100,000 a year:

24. Queen’s University Belfast – 104

23. Durham University – 118

22. University of York – 128

21. University of Sheffield – 142

20. Cardiff University – 176

19. University of Southampton – 186

=17. University of Nottingham – 207

=17. Queen Mary University of London – 207

Exeter looking cute

16. University of Exeter – 229

15. Newcastle University – 246

14. University of Bristol – 255

13. University of Liverpool – 256

12. University of Birmingham – 258

11. University of Warwick – 309

10. University of Leeds – 315

9. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 341

8. University of Glasgow – 350

7. University of Manchester – 367

=5. University of Edinburgh – 385

=5. King’s College London – 385

4. University of Oxford – 393

3. Imperial College London – 628

2. University of Cambridge – 899

1. University College London (UCL) – 1,075

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