By Gavin Mackintosh-
Universities Minister Jo Johnson has promised to bridge the alarming University wage gap between those at the top and the rest of the staff following recent alarm about the situation.
Johnson stated that Universities will have to explain the excessive pay gap between top earners and the rest of their staff. He added that university bosses will be brought “under control” by new regulations conducted by the office for students.
His promise comes in the wake of protests over the former head of Bath Spa University’s excessive pay of more than £800,000 in her final year, and similar protests at the University Of Southampton.
Mr Johnson said the Office for Students would require universities to ensure their “governance is fit for purpose”. His announcement will call for clearer evidence of the independence of committees deciding vice-chancellors’ pay.
Mr Johnson acknowledged there had been a problem and said Universities needed to answer public concerns about value for money.
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“I think they really are starting to get it,” said the universities minister, who said that a “new regulatory framework” would be published by the government in the new year.
“When students are paying for their own tuition fees, there is a greater expectation of greater accountability to students, but also to the taxpayer, who is underwriting the student loan book,” Mr Johnson rationally explained .
“Value for money is at the heart of why we set up the Office for Students,” he said. If those at the top of the University chain are overpaid, those below them will not be paid enough and this could affect teacher’s motivation, and inevitably the quality of the valued service of teaching they provide.
University bosses and lecturers should be leading the way when it comes to ethical reasoning and fair treatment, instead of bowing to the dictatorship of a few at the top of the hierarchical chain of command.
Johnson expressed concerned that the proportion of students in England who feel they are not getting value for money is greater than those who feel they are getting good value for money. The universities minister added that details of the “major review” of tuition fees and university funding – promised by Prime Minister Theresa May – would also appear in the “coming weeks”.
Sally Hunt, leader of the UCU lecturers’ union, welcomed Mr Johnson’s assurances on pay, but warned that he could become “the latest in a long line of ministers to have seen previous calls for pay restraint ignored”.
“Put simply, the status quo cannot continue.” With enough objection to these type of excesses, it will not continue.
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