BUMPER pay rises and bonuses pocketed by Scottish university principals have been condemned by politicians.
The SNP said the size of pay increases awarded to some university leaders were unacceptable and called for future restraint.
The attack comes after The Herald revealed a handful of university principals accepting above-inflation pay increases in 2013/14 despite cuts in public funding.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, principal of Strathclyde University, in Glasgow, is now by far the highest paid principal in Scotland after taking a seven per cent increase, which takes his annual salary to £334,000 a year.
The biggest increase in salary was the eight per cent awarded to Professor Stephen Chapman, the principal of Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, whose pay increased to £198,000.
And Professor Louise Richardson, the principal of St Andrews University, in Fife, also came under fire after pocketing a one off bonus of £30,000 - although the university highlighted the fact she has not had a pay rise for several years and has also donated £120,000 to a scholarship fund.
SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell, convener of the Scottish Parliament's education committee, said universities were a "great success story" for Scotland, but described the increases as "very disappointing".
He said: "At a time when many university staff are struggling to make ends meet as a result of Westminster-imposed austerity, for already highly-paid principals to take huge pay rises is simply unacceptable.
"While university principals across Scotland do a great job, the level of pay inequality between those at the top and those at the bottom is deeply unfair - a situation that will only be made worse by these inflation-busting pay rises for principals."
Liam McArthur, education spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, refused to condemn the latest increases, calling instead for institutions to demonstrate they were providing "value for money".
He said: "Our universities need to attract the best and brightest leaders if they are to successfully position themselves on the global stage, but this approach should complement and not undercut efforts to improve the student experience.
"With funding cuts continuing in both the higher education and further education sectors, institutions should demonstrate to students and taxpayers that they are delivering best value for money." The Scottish Labour Party declined to comment.
Following publication of the figures on Monday, student leaders and academic unions called for greater transparency over the way salary increases are decided by university renumeration committees. However, Universities Scotland, which represents principals, argued many university leaders had refused to accept pay rises.
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 hereComments are closed on this article