Named: UK uni bosses who literally live rent-free in mansions despite six-figure salaries

Erm, so vice-chancellors and presidents of UK universities receive eye-watering salaries, even though many UK unis are really struggling with money right now. Several vice-chancellors also get to live rent-free (literally) in boujie mansions. Here are the UK uni vice-chancellors who get to live in the poshest houses, despite their huge salaries.

Professor Deborah Prentice at the University of Cambridge

A somewhat shameless screenshot of 5 Latham Road on Google Maps

The head of Cambridge Uni gets to live in the whopping Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge near the university’s botanical gardens. The mansion is estimated to be worth upwards of £5 million. The site was refurbished in 2017 for £700,000 so that the then vice-chancellor, Stephen Toope, could host more parties there. Back then, the Daily Mail estimated this property was the most expensive of all the houses allocated to UK uni vice-chancellors.

Professor Karen O’Brien at Durham University

Love the flint (Image via Google Maps)

The Vice-Chancellor of Durham gets one of three apartments within the Grade II listed Hollingside House. More than £800,000 has been spent on refurbishments here since 2015. The building does also include an events space. So, the vice-chancellor doesn’t have the whole place to herself. She did get a base salary of £303,000 in the 2023/24 academic year, though.

Professor Sir Peter William Mathieson at the University of Edinburgh

Regent Terrace (Credit: SylviaStanley via Creative Commons)

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In June 2025, the vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh could not recall his salary and pay packet of £418,000. Hopefully he hasn’t forgotten that he also gets to live in a Georgian mansion in Regent Terrace, which is one of the most expensive streets in Scotland. In 2022, it emerged that the University of Edinburgh was also covering the household bills of nearly £20,000 a year, including garden landscaping work, and servicing his Aga.

Professor Nishan Canagarajah at the University of Leicester

Since 1946, the Leicester Uni vice-chancellor has lived in a 17th century, Grade II listed mansion called Knighton Hall. The building is worth upwards of £1.2 million. Professor Nishan Canagarajah was paid a salary of £328,000 in the 2023/2024 academic year.

Professor Irene Tracey at the University of Oxford

The head of Oxford Uni has to live in a three-storey red brick Victorian mansion valued at about £3.5 million. During Irene Tracey’s first full year in the job, she received £573,000 executive pay, including a £410,000 base salary plus an accommodation payment worth £100,000.

Professor Sir Gerry McCormac at the University of Stirling

(Image via Google Maps)

Several Stirling students and staff members are pretty unimpressed their vice-chancellor, nicknamed “Greedy Gerry”, has received a £119,000 pay rise over the last two years. His yearly salary is now £414,000.

The Courier found out the vice-chancellor lives in a vast Category A-listed modernist property on the university’s estate. The uni said this living situation “does not require rent but attracts a personal taxable benefit in kind”.