Exclusive:'Unacceptable' 50% rise in number of Scottish university staff earning more than £100,000

The number of high earners has more than doubled at some prestigious institutions

The number of staff at Scottish universities earning six-figure pay packets has rocketed by 50 per cent while the higher education sector has plunged into a financial crisis, it can be revealed.

An investigation by The Scotsman has found more than 1,174 employees at 17 institutions are now receiving in excess of £100,000 each year.

University staff protest against planned job cuts in a rally outside the Scottish Parliament. Picture: Lisa Ferguson | National World

The number for last year was up by half on the 782 staff in these bands in 2019, and increased by 13 per cent since 2023.

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Accounts for Strathclyde University show the number of high-earning employees in such categories has more than doubled from 53 in 2019 to 114 last year.

Neighbouring Glasgow University also recorded a substantial rise, from 185 staff earning six-figure sums to 350 in the period.

The increase is even sharper at Glasgow if clinical staff on NHS pay grades, linked to the medical school, are excluded from the figures. The number of non-clinical and senior management employees earning more than £100,000 has more than doubled from 111 to 237 since 2019.

The University of Glasgow | Getty Images

The figures have emerged as several universities across Scotland are cutting costs and hundreds of jobs to plug multi-million-pound holes in their finances, while pleading for a more sustainable funding model from the Scottish Government.

The rises also came amid a period of high inflation, where annual pay rounds may have tipped more senior staff into salary levels higher than £100,000.

Mary Senior, Scotland official at the University and College Union (UCU), said: “We need far more pay restraint from those at the top of our universities. Excessive salaries for principals and senior managers are unacceptable at a time when staff pay is being held down and job cuts are rife.”

The true number of Scottish university staff earning in excess of £100,000 is likely to be more than 1,200, up from more than 800 in 2019, as Dundee University has been excluded from The Scotsman’s calculations.

This is because it is still to publish its accounts for 2023/24, amid ongoing financial turmoil that has led to £22 million of liquidity support being provided to the institution by the Scottish Funding Council to stop it running out of money this summer.

In 2019, Dundee had 76 staff earning six-figures, rising to 99 by 2023. Looking only at non-clinical employees, the rise was from 29 to 48.

At Edinburgh University, the total number of staff earning more than £100,000 was up by a third from 285 in 2019 to 385 last year, or from 161 to 229 if you exclude clinical employees.

The number was up by almost half at Aberdeen University in the period, from 57 to 85, and it more than doubled at Napier University, going from nine to 24.

At St Andrews, the number on these pay levels increased from 48 to 58, while Glasgow Caledonian’s total went from 20 to 27, and there was a rise at the University of the West of Scotland from eight to 13.

Earlier this year, The Scotsman exclusively revealed that Stirling University’s long-serving principal, Sir Gerry McCormac, had become the highest paid university boss in Scotland, after seeing his salary soar from £295,000 in 2022 to £414,000 last year.

His total package, including pension contributions, is now £438,000 - up from £320,000 two years ago.

However, Stirling is one of a few universities where the number of high earners has otherwise remained relatively unchanged, along with Robert Gordon University, and others with very small numbers, such as the University of the Highlands and Islands, Abertay University, Glasgow School of Art, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Queen Margaret University.

At Heriot-Watt University, the number fell from 55 in 2019 to 40 in 2021 and 2023, before rising back to 50 last year.

The figures are contained in the annual accounts published by universities. Some institutions include the pay of their principal in the data, while others do not.

A spokesperson for umbrella body Universities Scotland said: “Universities are highly complex, multi-million-pound enterprises, which continue to navigate incredibly challenging and volatile operating environments.

“Over the last decade alone, senior teams in universities have had to steer institutions through the impact of Brexit and the pandemic, the pressures to leverage more private resource to the current financial headwinds coming from all angles.

“That requires a level of experience across a number of professional as well as academic functions and salaries that are commensurate with market rates across the UK and globally.

“It may not be reflected in last year’s financial reports yet, but over the last year we have seen a couple of institutions move to re-structure and that has involved the release of some senior management positions where transformation has included the merger of one or more schools or departments. However, that is a matter for each individual institution.”

After Sir Gerry at Stirling, the next highest-paid university principal in Scotland is Sir Peter Mathieson at Edinburgh University, who earns a salary of £362,000. Sir Peter’s package including payment in lieu of employer's pension contributions is £402,000, and his total remuneration comes to £422,000.

Sir Jim McDonald, the outgoing principal at Strathclyde, received a salary of £350,000 and a total of £417,000, while Dame Sally Mapstone at St Andrews gets £330,000, with a total package of £403,000. Aberdeen University’s George Boyne receives £292,000, with his total remuneration being £339,000.

At Glasgow University, Sir Anton Muscatelli’s salary was listed as “£0.3m”, with a total package of “£0.4m”, while Richard A Williams at Heriot-Watt is paid £286,000, and a total of £365,000.

Meanwhile, the number of Scottish universities reporting an operational deficit doubled from four in 2022/23 to eight in 2023/24.