Warwick University vice chancellor's five figure pay rise

The vice chancellor of Warwick University had a five-figure pay rise last year - while students face paying up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees.



Professor Nigel Thrift racked up a £316,000 total wage bill to cover pay and pensions during 2011/12, up by £42,000 on his 2010/11 total salary and benefits.

Warwick University defended Prof Thrift’s pay, saying the vice chancellor elected to have his salary frozen during between August 2008 and August 2011, and so did not receive a base salary increase during that time.

A spokesman for the university added his base salary was actually lower than average pay for other heads within the prestigious Russell Group of universities, to which Warwick belongs.

Sir George Cox, chair of Warwick’s remuneration committee, which sets Prof Thrift’s salary, said: “Under Nigel Thrift’s leadership Warwick has made outstanding progress on delivering its strategy to be a globally-connected university.

“He has been central to Warwick’s successful strategy of seeking, and forming, close and effective international partnerships such as that with Monash in Australia and the CUSP initiative in New York.

“During that time Warwick has also seen significant increases in income and the delivery of the largest capital programme in the university’s history with many new facilities for students and staff. Warwick is also on track to double the number of research students.

“That success is bringing real benefits to Warwick’s staff and student community. This has been recognised with a salary increase which, following years of voluntary pay freezes, still does no more than bring his remuneration into line with the average for Russell Group heads of institutions.”

Warwick’s statement of accounts for the for 2011/12 show Prof Thrift pocketed a total of £288,000 in pay and benefits, plus £28,000 in pension contributions.

The university said Prof Thrift’s 2011/12 salary “broadly compared” with the incremental pay rises he would have received had he not elected for a pay freeze.

Warwick is one of a number of universities which charges the full £9,000 for its course tuition fees.

In September Ucas revealed a 14 per cent fall in the number of UK and European Union students taking up places in institutions in England for 2012-13 entry compared with the previous year.

Professor David Eastwood, the vice-chancellor of Birmingham University, which is also in the Russell Group, saw a decrease in his total pay and benefits of £13,000. However, he still earned £406,000 during the 2011/12 academic year.

Warwick University boss Professor Nigel Thrift has had a five per cent pay rise – taking his salary to £332,000.

The rise from last year’s salary of £316,000 comes after lecturers and other university staff have staged strikes in protest at pay levels.

Members of lecturers’ union the University and College Union and support staff unions Unison and Unite took action in November.

They were angry about a one per cent pay offer – and said a series of below inflation annual pay offers meant that pay had dropped 13 per cent behind living costs since 2008.

University spokesman Peter Dunn said: “On average university staff have had a three to four per cent pay rise because they go up in increments each year on top of their annual pay increase.

"Even folk at the top of their category can apply for merit pay. Warwick is in the top ten in most university league tables but Professor Thrift’s pay is only in the top 30.”

Mr Dunn also pointed out that Professor Thrift had a two-year pay freeze in 2009 and 2010.

Chairman of the Unite national education committee Haydn Morris said: “On the day that the cost of living crisis has again been highlighted by the leap in rail fares, the university bosses are lining their own substantial pockets, while those staff that keep Britain in the top ten world university league table struggle to make ends meet.

“The ‘them and us’ situation is made worse as the cumulative operating surplus in the higher education sector is now over £1billion.

"Cash rich universities could well afford to be more generous than the one per cent offer currently on the table.”

Professor Thrift’s salary is listed in the university’s statement of accounts for the year ending July 31. The accounts list a £19.5million surplus and say that financial strength is sound.

A spokesman for the UCU said: “Few people have ever bought the lie that we are all in this together, but these revelations are as insulting as they are unfair.

With further industrial action set for the new year, if the pay dispute is unresolved, these controversial rises will galvanise union members who are determined to fight for fair pay.”

The vice chancellor is the most senior paid post at the university in Gibbet Hill, Coventry. The chancellor has a ceremonial role without a salary.

Students blast £92k 'farewell package' handed to Warwick University's former vice-chancellor

A farewell package worth £92,000 awarded to Warwick University’s former vice-chancellor has been condemned as an “insult” by students.

More than 600 people have signed a petition begun by Warwick Students’ Union to protest against the payout to Prof Nigel Thrift.

Warwick’s former boss had commanded a salary of £349,000 and had been in the job since 2006.

But the students’ union pointed out the university’s own guidelines say staff reaching ten years’ service should be gifted a letter of thanks and a pen.

A union spokesman said: “The current financial climate is extremely difficult for students and staff alike.

“With rising food, transport and accommodation costs, coupled with the scrapping of maintenance grants, we are all feeling the squeeze.

“It is for this reason that being told that our former vice-chancellor, Nigel Thrift, received a voluntary gift of £92,000 from a three-man remuneration committee is extremely difficult to take, and appears astonishingly inept and out-of-touch with ordinary people’s lives.”

The union said the money could instead go on mental health workers and bursaries for junior doctors or students from low-income backgrounds.

Prof Thrift left the university in January to become executive director of Schwarzman Scholars, an international leadership program based in Beijing.