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VC draws £30k bonus
Monday March 22 2010 Week 22
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Page 22
Alex Moss News Editor
FIGURES released by the University have shown that Vice Chancellor, Professor Steve Smith, last year received a five-figure bonus and ‘hospitality budget’ in excess of £36,000. Prof. Smith, who is both Vice Chancellor of the University and head of Universities UK, the umbrella organisation for Higher Education institutions in the United Kingdom, last year earned a fixed salary of £265,000. This marks a £30,000 increase on his 2007/8 salary. By contrast, Gordon Brown last year earned £197,000. Professor Steve Smith also received a £30,000 performance-based bonus. Stuart Franklin, University Communications Director, explained that this related to Exeter’s position in the Higher Education league tables. He said, “Members of the ViceChancellor’s Executive Group are eligible for a performance-related bonus if they meet set targets. This award was for 2008/09, the year in which Exeter made it into the top-ten of a major league table for the first time.”
“Clearly women have not yetachievedequality in the workplace ” Kate Delvin, University Equality and Diversity Manager
Universities UK, headed by Prof. Smith, last week claimed that the increases in VC salaries were justified. Nicola Dainbridge, Chief Executive of UUK, told The Guardian, “Salaries of university heads in the UK are comparable with those in competitor countries and are also in line with renumeration packages for directors
NEWS investigates the issue of plagarism in Exeter and interviews University Chancellor, Floella Benjamin OBE
Vice Chancellor Prof. Steve Smith’s on-campus residence Redcot House. Photo: Henry White
and chief executives of public and private organisations of a similar size.” She added, “As the role and importance of Higher Education have grown, so have the demands on the offices of vice chancellors.” This statement came during the same week as announcements that government Higher Education funding would be cut at three quarters of universities in the UK, though Exeter is set to receive a 3.7% rise. In addition to the bonus and fixed salary, a further £36,200 was spent on ‘hospitality’ events hosted by the Vice Chancellor in his on-campus residence Redcot House. However, Stuart Franklin explained that this budget was not held by the Vice Chancellor himself. “The ‘hospitality’ budget is actually held by me rather than the VC. It covers the cost of events at Redcot, which we use as a venue for entertaining important guests.“ He added, “The purpose of such events varies.”
Prof. Steve Smith does not currently fall into the bracket of top-earning Vice Chancellors in the UK. The highest-paid in the country currently draws a £474,000 annual salary, while 19 others earn over £300,000. Statistics released under the 2002 Freedom of Information Act have also highlighted the number of University staff currently earning over £100,000 a year. Currently 24 individuals employed at Exeter University draw a salary in excess of £100,000. However, it has also been revealed that only three of these were women. Kate Devlin, University Equality and Diversity Manager, said she was “disappointed” but “not surprised” that there was such a disparity in the relatively low number of women in top-paid jobs at Exeter. She commented, “Since the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970 (40 years ago) we really have not seen a dramatic shift in who are the top earners in the UK. There is probably something here about what opportunities are
available to women and the subtle often-unintended barriers that may still be put in their way.“ Devlin added, “In universities in the UK in 2009 pay gaps were much wider between male and female staff than between the other equality categories of ethnicity and disability.” However, Stuart Franklin explained that the University was committed to increasing the number of women in the top jobs. He said, “We are working to improve the number of women in senior positions and have developed a plan to achieve this.” He added that it was a national problem, and not limited to Exeter. “It’s worth noting that the highest earning academics nationally tend to be in areas like science and engineering, which have traditionally had higher numbers of men than women, and this affects the sector as a whole not just Exeter.” In contrast to Franklin’s comments, Devlin concluded her statement by saying, “Clearly women have not yet achieved equality in the workplace.”
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