SCOTTISH university principals should have their pay capped at £150,000 to clamp down on a “culture of greed”, academics have said.

The call – contained in a motion to the annual congress of the UCU union – comes after figures published by The Herald for the past decade show substantial rises for the post at many institutions.

The increases since 2007 – some of which amount to more than 50 per cent and go up to 76 per cent – compare to a rise for lecturing staff of 18 per cent.

The motion, from the Strathclyde University branch of the UCU, states: “In light of growing disparity between university principals’ salaries and ordinary staff members and the excessive bonuses awarded to principals in Scottish universities this motion calls for a cap of £150,000 to be set as a salary for principals across the sector.”

Lecturers and student leaders are also concerned that principals can sit on remuneration committees – although they are not allowed to be in attendance when their salaries are discussed.

Other options for determining senior pay being suggested by the UCU include linking the salary of the top earner to average pay in the sector.

Mary Senior, Scotland official for the UCU, said: “Year on year university staff keep seeing the principals of Scotland’s universities awarding themselves inflation- busting pay rises, while staff pay is held down.

“University workers are now having to take an unprecedented number of strike days to defend their pensions, while we’re told that £300,000 salaries for principals are necessary to get the best people for the job. Ordinary workers are concluding that this is down to a culture of greed and arrogance at the top and our congress will consider how we address excessive pay at the top, whether this is by a cap, better representation of staff and students on remuneration committees, or how we get a transparent framework for senior staff pay.”

A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, which represents principals, said: “Scotland’s universities very recently reformed their governance of remuneration committees.

“The STUC and Unison were full members of the group which also included NUS Scotland. University principals had no role in the process.

“It resulted in several changes including the option to have staff and students on the remuneration committee, and new guidelines to inform decision-making including public sector benchmarks for pay. We are keen to see these recent changes bed-in across the sector and to see what impact the changes have.”

Vice president of student body NUS Scotland Jodie Waite said: “It can’t be right that decisions over pay continue to be made behind closed doors, with little or no scrutiny from staff and students.”

The top earner in Scotland, according to last year’s university accounts, was Strathclyde University’s Professor Sir Jim McDonald, who took home a total pay package of £360,000 – eight times the average salary of staff employed at the university.

Aberdeen University’s Professor Sir Ian Diamond was the second highest paid on £352,000 after an increase of 11 per cent between 2014-15 and 2015-16.

The third highest was Glasgow University’s Professor Anton Muscatelli on £322,000.