As we have done each year since 2011, campus unions wrote to members of the University Remuneration Committee before their annual meeting on 9th July.   We have not so far heard back from the Remuneration Committee, and its decisions were not reported to its parent body – University Council – which met later the same day.

In a newspaper interview, Vice Chancellor Glynis Breakwell has defended the enormous pay rises she has received in the last eight years.   Using words that will inflame most people working in higher education she said  “I’m worth it.   I’ve been in the job a long time and you do tend to get increases over time in most jobs.”  Most people working in HE have seen  the value of their pay fall by 15% in the last eight years.

UCU is challenging the Vice Chancellor’s refusal to disclose her expenses, in line with disclosures made by most other Vice Chancellors, and published recently in the national UCU report Transparency at the Top.