How much your Russell Group Student Union officers are actually paid, revealed

Earlier this year, an analysis of the National Student Survey, which asked students how well their SU represented them, found that a third of Russell Group uni students thought their Student Union was doing a bad job.

This only confirmed what students at loads of unis up and down the UK have been saying for years, that student unions are kind of pointless and the majority of students don’t actually know what they do and what they get paid for.

And yeah we might not know what they get paid for besides harassing you for votes when you’re rushing to get to a 9am, but how much do they actually get paid?

Here is how much your SU sabbatical officers are paid at Russell Group unis:

Not every SU officer at every uni is paid the same and it can vary massively depending on which uni you go to. Generally, SU officers at Russell Group unis are paid around £18k to £30k with the average around £22,000.

One job ad for the SU president at The University of Sheffield earlier this year offered £21,630 a year for 35 hours a week, working out at around £11.85 an hour. Whereas at Imperial College London and London School of Economics the SU officer salary 2023 is around £30k for the exact same job.

Here’s the rest of the Russell Group’s SU officer salaries ranked from lowest to highest:

18. Durham University – £18,778

17. Cardiff University – £20,000

16. Queen’s University Belfast – £21,000

15. The University of Nottingham – £21,112

14. The University of Leeds – £21,453

13. Newcastle University – £21,500

12. The University of Cambridge – £21,518

11. The University of Sheffield – £21,630

10. The University of Manchester – £22,000

= 9. The University of Exeter – £22,000

8.The University of York – £22,017

7. The University of Edinburgh – £23,000

6.The University of Warwick – £23,282

5. The University of Birmingham – £24,557

4. The University of Oxford – £25,642

3. University College London – £27,000

2. Imperial College London – £30,000

1. London School of Economics  – £30,134

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• The Russell Group Vice-Chancellors who received the most eye-watering pay rises last year