Lancaster Vice Chancellor gets a £10k pay rise, putting him on £340k

Lancaster University's Vice Chancellor has bagged a 10k pay rise this year.

Overall, Mark E. Smith's pay went from £330,000 in 2016/17 to £340,000 in 2017/18.

This means he earns 8.2x the median salary of staff at the university, according to financial statements seen by The Lancaster Tab.

The numbers crunched in the 2018 Financial report

Within the financial report, the university attempts to justify Mark E. Smith's pay rise by suggesting: "The University's performance has improved rapidly during the period culminating in the University becoming the Times and Sunday Times University of the Year in 2018 and consistently being in the top 10 nationally, at the same time as meeting our widening participation aims." Which is a classic Lancaster University name drop of "University of the year".

However, Johnny Unger, the President of Lancaster UCU expressed worry. He told The Lancaster Tab: "I am concerned that while VCs are failing to address pay inequality, casualisation and workload issues across the sector, and refusing to give most university staff a pay increase that keeps up with the cost of living.

"They are being awarded increasingly lucrative pay packages."