Russell Group uni vice-chancellors who got huge pay raises despite mass job cuts

Even the UK’s illustrious Russell Group universities are struggling with money at the moment. A drop in international students and an increase in running costs has left many unis short-changed. Loads of Russell Group unis made judge job cuts in the 2024 to 2025 academic year… yet plenty of vice-chancellors still got huge pay raises.

The usual justifications for vice-chancellors’ salaries are that the jobs are important and stressful. Arguably, running a uni is a big responsibility, and a high salary is needed to attract someone skilled. The head of a large university probably makes less money than the CEO of a large company.

This data all comes from each uni’s annual accounts, and refers to the 2024 to 2024 academic year. Although lots of the “compensation for loss of office” is from voluntary severance scheme, these figures may also include staff whose contracts ended, or staff whose jobs were flat-out axed.

So, here are all the Russell Group unis where vice-chancellors received big pay raises, despite the huge job cuts.

University of Bristol

Bristol paid £1.6 million to 216 employees who left. Staff from the Centre for Academic Language and Development (CALD) went on strike over the summer over plans for redundancies.

Professor Evelyn Welch received a £5,000, and made a total of £398,000.

University of Birmingham

The main Uni of Birmingham campus
(Image via Unsplash)

Brum opened up a voluntary severance scheme in autumn 2024. This year, 286 staff members left with £12,400,000 between them. Professor Adam Tickel was awarded a £5,000 raise, plus a performance-related bonus of £28,000. This brought up his total pay to £453,000.

University of Cambridge

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Erm, so the super-famous University of Cambridge actually reported an adjusted operating deficit of £8 million in June. (Remember, many Cambridge colleges are absolutely loaded. The uni won’t be running out of money anytime soon.) In the 2024 to 2025 year, 480 employees who left received £5,940,000 million of payments.

Professor Deborah Prentice’s salary went up £5,000. Including benefits and accommodation in a fancy uni-owned house, she made £507,000.

Cardiff University

Cardiff Uni students looking very academic

Professor Wendy Larner received a salary of £294,000 for the year. That’s more than the £267,000 salary she got for 11 months of work last year. Including benefits such as medical insurance and accommodation, she got £364,000.

Cardiff spent £24.3 million on the voluntary severance and redundancy scheme. The full-time equivalent staff count dropped by 2 per cent. As of summer 2025, the uni had a deficit of £33.4 million.

University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh Uni made huge cuts in 2025, including hundreds of jobs and tampons in the library.

The Principal Peter Mathieson did not remember how much his pay was last year. So, here’s a reminder of what he made in the 2024-2025 year. He received a £13,000 salary increase, and got £426,000 overall.

University of Exeter

The Uni of Exeter’s very Instagramable sign

In May 2025, the uni brought back The Exeter Release Scheme. This is a voluntary severance scheme designed to whittle down the numbers of staff. In the 2024/2025 academic year, the uni paid out £10,038,000 to 427 employees who left.

Professor Roberts’ salary increased by £3,000. Overall, she made £392,000 that year.

King’s College London (KCL)

Professor Shitij Kapur’s salary went up by £42,000. Really. The uni’s financial report said this change was to compensate for tax he now has to pay on his uni-owned residence.

Over the year, King’s spent £3,602,000 axing 327 jobs.

University of Manchester

Manchester Uni has a new vice-chancellor: Professor Duncan Ivison. His salary is £90,000 more than the last vice-chancellor’s. Including “relocation benefits”, he got £417,000 overall.

In that year, Manchester Uni ditched 234 employees at a cost of £1,700,000.

University of Oxford

I’d pay to live among these buildings, to be honest

Professor Irene Tracey is still the highest-paid vice-chancellor of any Russell Group uni. After a £17,000 raise, her total pay was £666,000. Really.

That year, Oxford paid £5,379,000 to 545 leaving employees. 81 of these worked at Oxford University Press, not the uni itself.

Queen Mary University of London

The uni is restructuring its departments, which is resulting in lots of job cuts. Voluntary severance schemes targeted the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2024. The Professional Services department is being reorganised. Queen Mary paid £6,221,967 to 277 leaving employees.

Professor Colin Bailey received a £4,087 raise, making his overall pay £356,561.

Queen’s University Belfast

Queen’s ended the year with a £22.8 million deficit. The uni shellef out £19,190,000 to 518 staff who left.

Professor Ian Greer received an £8,000 raise.

University of Sheffield

A very cool-looking part of Sheffield’s engineering department
(Credit: Sheffieldstoic)

The University of Sheffield was among the unis that made the most job cuts last year. The uni paid £10,900,000 to 614 staff members who left. Despite all these cuts, Sheffield ended up with an underlying operating deficit of £11.5 million.

Amidst all these cuts, this Russell Group uni’s vice-chancellor was still awarded a 2.5 per cent pay raise. Overall, he made £376,572.

University of Warwick

In the 2024-2025 year, the uni made payments to 184 staff who left. In November 2025, management announced a new Voluntary Leavers Scheme.

A £4,000 raise bumped up Professor Stuart Croft’s earnings to £389,000.

University of York

The uni set out to make £15 million of savings last year. Management had to pay out £6,784,000 to 393 employees that left.

York’s vice-chancellor, Professor Charlie Jeffery, was paid £316,485. That’s £6,117 than the year before.

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