THE wealthy Principal of Strathclyde University is embroiled in a double job row after he pocketed £57,250 for sitting on a corporate board.
Sir Jim McDonald, who is already the highest-paid higher education chief north of the border, received the equivalent of £3,816 for each of the 15 board meetings he attended at the Weir Group.
Green MSP Ross Greer said: "Many will understandably question whether this Principal is focusing on his university role given such a well-paid directorship."
McDonald’s £343,000 remuneration package at the University is more than the combined salaries of the Prime Minister and First Minister and exceeds other senior figures in the sector.
In 2014, he came under fire after it emerged that, as well as carrying out his duties at Strathclyde, he was also planning to sit on the board of Weir Group – an engineering giant.
At the time, a University spokeswoman refused to comment on whether it was a paid post and restricted herself to saying: "Strathclyde has a strong tradition of working closely with business and industry and we welcome our staff taking up appointments such as these as it enables the university to stay connected to business, ultimately for the benefit of the economy and academic advancement."
The accounts for the Glasgow-based firm were published recently and confirm McDonald was generously paid for his time.
The £57,250 he received, almost double the average wage in Scotland, was for work carried out in 2015.
Strathclyde has a close working relationship with the firm and collaborates on a range of projects, including the Weir Advanced Research Centre.
According to the University’s website, McDonald is also a non-executive Director of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.
A spokesman for Catapult told this newspaper in 2014 McDonald would be entitled to £12,000 for his work, including £10,000 for board duties and £2,000 as a committee chair.
A combination of his University package, as well Weir Group and Catapult fees, would take McDonald’s remuneration to £412,250.
Picture: UCU official Mary Senior, who has criticised second jobs
Confirmation of McDonald’s extra earnings comes after the University splashed out £1.1m on a lavish Glasgow townhouse for his use.
At the time of purchase, the magnificent five-floor property in the city’s Park Circus boasted three offices, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, drawing room, "show" room, workshop, study and two sitting rooms.
The University also spent £339,000 sprucing up the luxury property, including £4,000 on a wardrobe, £1,180 on a chair, £825 for one drawer and £3400 on sofas.
Apart from a stint in the private sector, the bulk of McDonald’s career has been spent at the University.
He was Head of the Electronic & Electrical Engineering department, before rising to deputy principal and then principal in 2008.
Mary Senior, the Scotland Official at the University and College Union, said:"One of the great sources of frustration and anger amongst our members is the incredible disconnect that exists between principals and the rest of staff.
"UCU members are currently taking industrial action to reverse years of real-terms pay cuts from universities and to address pay inequality. However, those at the top who are holding down their pay, seem to see nothing wrong with second incomes, grace and favour houses or inflation-busting pay rises."
Greer, who speaks for the Scottish Green Party on education, said: "Given the ongoing struggle for frontline university staff to get fair pay while senior management enjoy massive rises, this principal's extremely well paid second job will anger many. Higher education lecturers have seen a real terms pay cut of 13% since 2009.
"He should consider whether this second job is in the best interests of his university and what it does to the confidence, or lack of, that staff have in senior management."
A University spokeswoman said: "The Principal, with the approval of the University Court, serves on the Board of the Weir Group, for which he receives a standard fee. The non-executive role does not impinge on his full-time position at the University."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel