No pay cut for UoB’s £450k Vice Chancellor for now, say uni

The University of Birmingham’s Vice Chancellor, Sir Professor David Eastwood is not taking a pay cut to his £450,000 pay package despite looming financial pressure during COVID-19.

The university told The Birmingham Tab that “a small number of Vice-Chancellors have taken a short term pay cut. Our approach at Birmingham is to carefully consider all options and ensure decisions made fully support the short and long term sustainability of the university.”

Vice Chancellors at Russell Group unis have already decided to take a pay cut, including Edinburgh, Nottingham, Manchester, Imperial College London, Liverpool, Cardiff, London School of Economics, Bristol, York, and King’s College London.

Among these universities some have donated their salaries directly to student hardship funds including Imperial College and Bristol, where 50 per cent of savings are going to the University of Bristol’s Student Hardship Fund.

UoB continued “we have already put in place a wide range of measures including tight controls on recruitment, delaying major capital projects where appropriate and restricting expenditure and costs and will continue to keep the situation under review.”

This comes after many Russell Group universities have confirmed pay cuts. This includes Ed Byrne the president of King’s College London due to take a 30 per cent pay cut for six months. Moreover, The University of Bristol’s Vice-Chancellor, Hugh Brady, has announced he will be taking a 20 per cent pay cut in response to financial pressures brought on by the coronavirus.

A spokesperson from the University of Birmingham continued to tell the Birmingham Tab: “like the rest of the sector, we are working in a rapidly developing situation to establish what the financial impact of COVID-19 is going to be, and what steps we need to take to ensure that the University can continue to provide high quality teaching and world leading research.”

Sir Professor David Eastwood has been the Vice Chancellor of the University of Birmingham since 2009.