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Sykes Tops Vice-Chancellor Pay Chart

Mar 13 2008 14:43

Ashley Brown

A survey by Times Higher has Sir Richard Sykes topping the pay chart, costing the College £348,000 per year.

£348,000 for a diverse range of skills...!

A Times Higher Education (THE) survey of vice chancellor and academic pay has revealed that Sir Richard Sykes topped the pay chart for the 2006-2007 academic year, with a 6.7% increase on the year before to £348,000. However, Sykes has not joined the College pension scheme, so receives no pension contributions: this pushes him into second place behind the Vice Chancellor at Nottingham, who costs a total of £355,000 when his £46,897 pension contributions are included. Senior lecturers at Nottingham may be particularly annoyed that their Vice Chancellor receives as much in pensions contributions as their overall salaries.

The rest of Imperial's academic staff are not so lucky with their pay, with professors coming in 7th place in the list at £75,475 and lowly researchers in 13th place at £31,851. Senior lecturers and lecturers fair slightly better, at 3rd place (£57,519) and 5th place (£40,858). They can take some comfort in the fact that they earn more than their Oxbridge counterparts.

The London Business School stands out in the survey, with the third-highest pay for any vice chancellor and academics earning an average of £132,768. The VCs at Oxford and Cambridge cost their institutions £210,000 and £204,000, respectively.

The College has issued a statement to the student media regarding the pay survey, stating that salaries of all senior staff are reviewed on an annual basis by the "remuneration committee", which "takes into account the demands of the job and the successes achieved."

The statement highlighted the successes of Sir Richard over the course of his eight year period in office, including the formation of interdisciplinary research institutes, the UK's first Academic Health Sciences Centre and Imperial's current ranking as 5th in the world in the Times Higher's World University Rankings.

In the year covered by the survey, Imperial brought in £16.1m in fees from full-time home and EU students, a further £56m from full-time overseas students and other fee-related income making a total of £85.2m. HEFCE grants attracted £155.2m of funding, other grants £230.0m, with further operating and investment income leading to a total of £556.2m. Total costs were £555.9m.

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Discussion about “Sykes Tops Vice-Chancellor Pay Chart”

The comments below are unmoderated submissions by Live! readers. The Editor accepts no liability for their content, nor for any offence caused by them. Any complaints should be directed to the Editor.

1. why

Mar 13 2008 15:35

does anyone agree that these results show that we don't need higher student fees at Imperial. With current fees the uni made a small profit.

2. Mech Student

Mar 13 2008 21:28

Stop whining about he, hes got us to 5th in the world, hes done brilliantly.

3. economist

Mar 13 2008 21:55

I thought it was the exchange rate that did it? Not that he's done a bad job but he can hardly take all the credit.

4. Robert Ward

Mar 13 2008 23:01

You can't put a price on good management.

What Sykes has done for this university over the last few years has totally justified his salary.

5. Victoria Gibbs

Mar 14 2008 16:54

He earns 4 times as much as fantastic NHS surgeons who work 80 hour weeks. That makes me sick!

6. hmmmm

Mar 14 2008 17:28

@ Robert: You say that "You can't put a price on good management", yet you go on to say that his salary (of exactly ?348,000) is justified. Contradictory, no?

@ Victoria: It may seem unfair but if you took the time to understand the market dynamics behind it, it makes pefect sense.

Good job, Sir Dickie - if only you could have done it without turning campus into a bland buillding site and abolishing all traces of history we had here...

7. Victoria Gibbs

Mar 14 2008 17:53

You what? Are patronising?

Sod market dynamics. I'm just thinking that surgeons are much more useful and work harder (not that he doesnt work hard) and highlighting the unfairness of it all.

but life's unfair!

8. Robert Ward

Mar 14 2008 18:28

For Imperial (or any organisation) good management is invaluable.

For Sykes (or any individual) he takes the market rate offered.

Victoria - I think that IC Physicists are the greatest people in the world and should be offered the kind of salary Sykes is on (and then some). But a non IC Physicist would have something to say about that!

We work as a team in the economy and the market rewards the most hard-working, talented individuals. Just because Sykes is not a surgeon doesn't mean he doesn't comply with the above criteria.

9. Spencer Smith

Mar 14 2008 20:55

Sir Richard Sykes is amazing... so wise and worldly and full of vision and so ahead of our time... I find myself agreeing with all his policies and am confident of Imperial's future under his leadership.

Although I hate the new Imperial College (poly) logo and resent the college being turned into a NASA HQ, I feel that Sykes definitely deserves the pay, and won't mind if it increases by another 30%.

Re Victoria: Life is not unfair; agreed that few people can become surgeons and they are vital to our society, but far farrrrrr fewer are qualified to head a university, esp. one like Imperial . Talents like Sykes are rightly rewarded, just like Lloyd Blankfein pocketed US$18,000 per hour last year for his exceptional leadership during turbulent conditions, when rival firms were losing billions.

10. Spencer Smith

Mar 14 2008 20:56

Never trust the physicist :p

11. @ Victoria Gibbs

Mar 15 2008 00:14

Hum... I wonder how many surgeons got a high paid job in the new Imperial College Health Care Trust, because of Sykes' and team's vision when creating the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. In addition to the numerous medical professionals working at Imperial, due to all kinds of medical break through, now that more people donate significant amount of money to this well branded and respected university due to Skyes?

12. cynic

Mar 17 2008 10:18

"Sir Richard Sykes is amazing... so wise and worldly and full of vision and so ahead of our time... I find myself agreeing with all his policies and am confident of Imperial's future under his leadership."

Sycophant, methinks?

13. Skysie! Syksie!

Mar 17 2008 12:29

I think he's alright really. He looks like he's a better class of builder than the ones working outside of Southside at the moment. The c**k ups I've seen are brilliant.

But as for Sykes and Victoria- surgeons don't exactly scrimp by. If they want more money, they should have worked as accountants in the private sector. Medicine isn't always about the money you know... I'll admit he's done a fair amount to make this uni comparable to Oxford, Cambridge and make it world class and so should be renumerated as such.

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