Employees and students at the University of Stirling have been left feeling “appalled” and “disgusted” by the latest pay hike awarded to the institution’s principal and vice-chancellor.
Last week it was revealed by The Scotsman that Professor Sir Gerry McCormac has become Scotland’s best paid higher education chief, following a £119,000 salary increase in two years.
Sir Gerry now earns £414,000 annually, or £438,000 per year, including pension contributions.
This means his take-home pay is around £18,000 per month.
In 2022, the long-time university boss’s base salary was £295,000.
The university says the wage is “appropriate to the size and scale of the job.”
But staff working in various roles across the university are frustrated by the principal’s 33.5% pay increase at a time when teaching budgets are being slashed and job roles are not being filled.
An administrator in one of the faculties said: “Staff who have resigned or retired have not been replaced.
“Everyone in our professional service team feels overworked and underpaid. Nobody thinks that about our Principal.”
One academic in one of Stirling’s largest faculties said: “Cuts to tutor budgets and research funds have had a very negative impact on staff morale and well-being.
“This is a very challenging environment to work in, with everyone expected to do more with less.
“Concerns about poor mental health, work related stress and burnout and common among teaching and research staff.
“For the Principal to be so generously over-rewarded for overseeing this state of affairs is galling.”
‘University can’t justify greedy Gerry’s pay rise’
Students currently struggling to pay rent and fighting for better working conditions are similarly angry about Sir Gerry’s wage rise, exposed in a recent article.
Ali Rees, a 34-year-old journalism student at Stirling University, said: “It’s galling that whilst the Student Union is facing uncertainty over the future of the community food pantry because of funding, the VC has received this apocalyptically high pay rise.
“The university can say ‘he’s declined previous pay rises’ and ‘he’s donated money to the VC’s fund’ until they are blue in the face, it doesn’t justify this.
“The price of rent on campus has gone up, there are disputes between on-campus employers and student staff over pay and employment conditions, everything feels expensive, and greedy Gerry is being given an increase of more than both my parents have ever earned put together.
“It’s not acceptable.”
Another university academic expressed concern for junior members of their teaching team: “Part time tutors will have had contracts cut, or not renewed at all, as the university cut back on front line teaching support.
“These tutors are among the lowest paid and most precarious academic staff in the university.
“Many have expressed disgust upon learning of the salary and benefits the principal now enjoys.”
‘Most staff are appalled and dismayed’
A union spokesperson from UCU Stirling said: “Most staff are appalled and dismayed at the remuneration package that was approved for the Principal.
“2024 was a year of austerity and cost-cutting across the university.
“Teaching budgets were slashed, many staff leaving have not been replaced, and funding for research is also being cut.
“Senior management appear to be completely out of touch with the day-to-day pressures facing staff and students across the university.”
Sir Gerry’s pay bump comes at a time when Scottish universities are struggling to make ends meet.
As The Courier exclusively revealed this week, Dundee University bosses are currently in negotiations to secure a bank loan to fund redundancies at the institution.
University says salary is appropriate
A spokesperson for the University of Stirling said: “The Principal’s salary is set by the University’s Remuneration Committee, at a level that is appropriate to the size and scale of the job.
“The Principal has been in post for almost 16 years and in eight of the previous 10 years, he declined any increase determined by the Committee, beyond the national pay award.
“Realignments were implemented in 2022/23 and 2023/24, and the total figure includes employer pension contributions, the value of taxable benefits in kind, and takes into consideration comparable packages across the sector.
“Over the past 10 years, the Principal has personally donated more than £120,000 to the Vice-Chancellor’s Fund which supports student and staff projects.”
Across the country, Edinburgh University principal Sir Peter Mathieson earns an overall total of £422,000, St Andrews boss Dame Sally Mapstone banks £403,000 annually, and University of Aberdeen’s George Boyne pockets £339,000.
In contrast, the first minister of Scotland receives an annual wage of £176,780, which includes an MSP salary.
The UK prime minister’s pay currently amounts to £172,153 per year.
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