Kings College London vice chancellor lives rent free in luxury flat despite £300k salary

The vice-chancellor and President of King’s College London currently lives rent free, despite receiving a salary of over £300,000.

Professor Shitij Kapur lives in a flat within the Maughan Library and it is estimated that that the university has invested tens of thousands of pounds in renovations in to it.

The Maughan Library lies in the borough of the City of London, one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Roar News reports that President Shitij Kapur’s flat is 1,800 square feet (167 square meters), so is about four times larger than the average apartment size in the borough.

The vice-chancellor received a package of salary and benefits of £428,000 in the 2023/24 financial year, £431,000 in 2022/23, and £432,000 in 2021/22 — this includes further £63,000 into his pension in both the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial year.

King’s College London has published the VC’s salary in its “commitment to financial transparency”, with a page on its website dedicated to this. It explains his pay package in relation to his experience in leadership roles and leading higher education and research-intensive organisations.

In comparison to median salaries at King’s for the 2023/24 financial year, the salary received by Professor Shitij Kapur is 7.4 times (2022/23 7.3 times) the median base pay of staff at King’s and 8.9 times (2022/23 8.9 times) to the median total remuneration.

via YouTube

According to a Kings College London webpage, the accommodation and related expenses are deemed to be a benefit with a value of £40,000, following a valuation exercise conducted in 2023. Yet, the university has also invested over £60,000 in renovations to the flat.

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Following a Roar News investigation into KCL expense claims, of the around £60,000 which was spent on the renovation of the vice-chancellor’s Maughan Library flat in June 2021, over £26,000 was on decorations and £10,000 on furniture replacements (a figure which includes fixtures such as lighting).

The flat is also a historic grade two listed building, with the university under legal obligation to maintain the building by carrying out repair works. This includes preventing damage from inclement weather and wear and tear, including specialist repair work needed to maintain a heritage building.

KCL has also come under fire for the lavish expenditure on foreign visits for the vice-chancellor. There was almost £8,000 spent on a return flight from his two-day trip to Phoenix and almost £10,000 on a return flight from Virginia to Heathrow. For this purchase, the receipt records that the outbound leg was taken in business class and the return journey in first class.

On another occasion, Professor Kapur was booked on a six hour flight in premium economy for £3,474. The VC’s office paid a further £1,591 to upgrade the VC’s seat to business class. Roar News reported a KCL source describing this as a “part of cost sharing across departments”.

King’s College London was contacted for comment. 

Featured image via YouTube