University of Birmingham former Vice Chancellor paid £372,000 for four months work

The former vice chancellor of University of Birmingham was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for four months’ work, according to figures seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Sir David Eastwood was paid £372,000 for work conducted between August and December 2021 at the redbrick university.

The payout includes £120,000 for Sir Eastwood as part of a long-term incentive plan and a further £70,000 performance-related award.

Between August 2020 and July 2021 – during the height of the pandemic coronavirus – where many students studied lectures and course material from home – Sir Eastwood was paid £401,000 for his work, according to the same figures. Current vice-chancellor Adam Tickell was awarded £229,000 between 2021 – 2022, according to the figures.

It means the higher education establishment has paid out £601,000 to its respective vice chancellors – the second highest amount out of any Russell Group university.

Last week, more than 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK will strike for 18 days between February and March in disputes over pay, conditions and attacks on pensions.

The union is demanding a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost of living crisis as well as action to end the use of “insecure” contracts.

A pay increase worth between 4% and 5% was offered by the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), which represents university employers, but the union said it was not enough.

Jo Grady, University and College Union (UCU) general secretary, said members were entering their thirteenth year without an above inflation pay rise.

“There is no justification whatsoever for a vice-chancellor to earn so much more than the staff who teach, research and support students. This is yet further proof that those who lead the sector have their priorities wrong.

“University staff are ready to take further strike action this year because they are sick of being told to tighten their belts by a sector generating record income and sitting on tens of billions of pounds in reserves.

“We need to see urgent investment in staff through improved pay, pensions and working conditions, or higher education in the UK will experience disruption like never before.”

A University of Birmingham spokesperson said: “The University of Birmingham is committed to transparency with regard to the remuneration of senior staff, including that of the vice-chancellor.

“The university remuneration committee, determines salary for senior staff including the vice-chancellor and full details of the basis on which they reached decisions about salary levels are published annually in the Uuniversity’s annual report and accounts.

“Professor Sir David Eastwood retired at the end of 2021 after more than 12 years at the university. A long-term incentive plan was put in place in 2015/16 by remuneration committee for Sir David Eastwood; this has been reported each year in the University Annual Report since then.

“Any reward under that plan required a performance threshold to be met and that Professor Eastwood remained in post. The term, which had been extended in October 2019, ended in 21/22 and resulted in remuneration committee agreeing a one-off award of £120,000.”

Sir Eastwood tenure as vice chancellor has been mixed. In 2014, 13 students affiliated with Defend Education Birmingham and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) were arrested in the university’s Guild of Students for protesting against rising tuition fees and low staff wages.

Demonstrators claimed they had been ‘kettled’ – a tactic to confine protesters to a small area, which West Midlands police strongly denied.

In 2017, more than 160 academics protested over the high salary and benefits received by Sir Eastwood, including his university-funded chauffeur-driven car.

But in 2020, the university was the first in the country to lower entry requirements for students in recognition of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on A-level students.

In an article for ‘Old Joe’ the university’s alumni newsletter, Sir Eastwood said his time as vice chancellor was an “irresistible opportunity”.

He said: “I am deeply proud of what we have achieved as a university community. I am confident that, together, we have taken the university to a better place – better for our students and for our research – and that we have and are making an enduring difference to our city, our region, and indeed in the wider world.

“Retiring from my current role will enable me to pursue other opportunities and interests, find new ways to contribute to the development of the world-class higher education sector that this country enjoys, and to spend more and quality time with my family and grandchildren.”

Of the 21 Russell Group universities to have published their accounts so far, the median package rose from £375,000 to £382,000 in 2021-22.