400 university bosses earn £100,000-plus

More than 400 senior university staff in Scotland earn over £100,000 a report has revealed.

The investigation by a leading academic examining the impact of the recession also shows that 250 staff earn more than the chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, which distributes the money to universities.

Now Professor John Field, director of the Division of Academic Innovation and Continuing Education at Stirling University, who wrote the report, says university principals should take a pay freeze this year. Education secretary Michael Russell has already said teachers cannot be exempted from a public- sector pay-freeze policy.

Prof Field says: "As autonomous institutions, universities are not likely to be tied to this policy, but there is a case for considering a voluntary commitment to the principle.

"Academic salaries are generally well above the average incomes of individual workers in Scotland. The sector includes some staff on very high salaries."

His report also warns university managers have little understanding of the effects of the recession and says key student services, such as careers and support, are under threat.

Prof Field says demand for places is so high that mature students and those coming up from colleges might be frozen out of a university education. "Severe pressures are building up as a result of rising social demands, combined with falling public income," his report says.

"Student services are clearly stretched, and the accounts at present indicate that they are fighting the fires in front of them, rather than anticipating the more severe challenges that now appear inevitable."

Mary Senior, Scottish official for lecturers' union the UCU, backed calls for a management pay freeze. She said: "Staff are effectively taking a pay cut, but we still have this real excess at the top, which is incongruous, given the current financial situation."

Alastair Sim, director of umbrella group Universities Scotland, said they had already taken measures to limit pay costs.

He said: "Many senior management teams have opted to take pay freezes, and bonuses and performance-related pay have been suspended in many cases.

"Universities are tied into pay bargaining for staff on a UK-wide basis, which limits flexibility on pay, but the pay offer on the table for staff is currently 0.4 per cent.

"Any suggestion that these sorts of considerations aren't already under way would be disingenuous to say the least."