Vice-Chancellor of Soton Uni gets pay rise of £72,000 while up to 75 staff jobs are cut

The vice-chancellor of the university, Sir Christopher Snowden, is enjoying a salary of £424,000 this year, which is actually a £72,000 increase from his 2015-16 salary.

This comes just after it was announced the university told professors it must make 75 job cuts in order to merge its eight faculties into five – in order to save money. It seems that this is where it's going. Is the new chauffeur for you too, Mr. Snowden?

Sally Hunt, the General Secretary of the University and College Union, slammed his decision to accept the rise, saying it shows "once again how out of touch university vice-chancellors can be".

She added: "To accept this kind of pay rise while saying he must axe 75 academic jobs because money is tight beggars belief.

Following a summer of damaging headlines about the abuse of pay and perks by senior staff in universities, it is almost as if vice-chancellors are engaged in some offensive game to see who can shock the most."

The university have, of course, defended Mr. Snowden saying: “The vice-chancellor’s salary was set and is regularly reviewed and agreed by the university’s independently chaired remuneration committee, which reports to the university council."

But, in actual fact, the financial accounts published today show Mr. Snowden actually sits on the university's senior salaries committee. If they don't set the pay of the top branch, then who does?

Just last week, the vice-chancellor of the University of Bath actually had to publicly declare her resignation due to controversy over her salary of £468,000.

This whole matter calls into question of the standard of teaching at the university. I mean after all, we are paying for it.

If the heads of the uni are being paid more and more and academics and professors aren't – with up to 75 losing their job after next year – how will this affect the teaching moral at the university?

Food for thought.