GLASGOW Caledonian University has been criticised after a key figure on its troubled New York campus project was given a $334,000 pay deal.

Cara Smyth, who leads the team at GCU New York, was also awarded a $25,000 “bonus” as part of her remuneration package, despite the offshoot having no degree students.

In the same year, official accounts stated that the project’s liabilities exceeded its assets by over $7million.

Dr Nick McKerrell, a trade union convener at the University, described the sums as “shameful”.

Glasgow Caley, led by principal Pamela Gillies, is funding its Manhattan satellite though a loan and it was reported last week that £9.6m had been spent so far.

The Wooster Street campus was “officially opened” by former First Minister Alex Salmond at a glitzy launch in April 2014.

However, the ambitious project has been hamstrung by a failure to get an educational license from the New York authorities, which means it has no power to enrol degree students.

The University set up a legal entity, GCU-NYU Inc, to help deliver the initiative and this organisation files accounts in the US.

According to the most recent financial statement, which covers 2014/15, Smyth received “base compensation”, which is effectively salary, of $270,353.

The accounts also state that Smyth benefited from $38,750 in “other reportable compensation” and $25,000 in “bonus & incentive compensation”, which took her package to £334,103.

The GCU New York website makes clear Smyth’s pivotal role on the project: “Leading the team at GCU New York is Cara Smyth. Cara is a former CEO of Menichetti International, a director of Burberry and President of Jil Sander America.”

The Herald: Professor Pamela Gillies

Picture: Gillies

The same accounts state that Bob Clougherty, described in the paperwork as the “dean”, received $191,583 in “base compensation”.

At the end of the 2014/15 financial year, the total assets of GCU/NYC Inc came to $3,058,951, while liabilities were listed as $10,750,063.

Of the $3,810,983 spent on “functional expenses” in the same year, the biggest item was occupying the Wooster Street office, which cost $1,812,987.

The accounts offered a summary of the body's mission: "The organisation will provide education to students by way of townhall events and classroom taught courses."

However, it later added: “No programs were delivered between August 1, 2014 and July 31, 2015. It is intended that a range of degree accredited education will be delivered once the education license has been granted.”

It was also revealed last week that the New York outpost was trying to raise money by renting out space in its campus to external organisations.

McKerrell said: “The capacity of the GCU New York scheme to shock staff here in Glasgow seems endless. For these sort of salaries to be handed to two individuals on the other side of Atlantic who are overseeing a student-less campus with no degree awarding powers is shameful.

“This simply cannot go on. The governing body of the University must allow an independent investigation into how this failing project which is in debt, has no teaching licence and is costing us millions of pounds each year has continued to be sanctioned. Staff are now getting angry."

The University did not respond to this newspaper’s multiple requests for comment. However, the University recently defended the New York campus. Professor James Miller, deputy vice-chancellor of GCU, said: "Over the past nine years Glasgow Caledonian University has made surpluses and that has allowed us to make the investments that we make, not just in our transnational and international ventures but also in relation to the investments that we make here in Glasgow."