The University is committed to transparency with regard to the remuneration of senior staff, including that of the Vice-Chancellor, and publishes these annually in the University’s Financial Statements.
The below figures are for current salary which is different to the historic salary reported in the financial statements.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West’s salary is currently £323,400. The University also makes the standard employer’s contribution of 21.1%, available to all academic staff, to her USS pension scheme.
Full details of the Vice-Chancellor’s remuneration are published in the table below:
Vice-Chancellor’s remuneration details
| Salary |
£323,400 per annum |
| Salary Review |
Annual review by Remuneration Committee |
| Pension |
Member of the USS pension scheme where the University makes the standard employer’s contribution - currently 21.1%. |
| Travel and expenses |
Business travel and accommodation secured via the University’s central booking systems, and according to the same regulations as apply to all University staff. |
| National Pay Award |
The Vice-Chancellor received only the national salary increase of 2% implemented for all staff covered by UCEA negotiations.
|
| Bonus or incentive package |
No |
| Private Healthcare |
No |
| Accommodation |
No |
| Car |
No |
| Other benefits |
No |
| Start date |
1 October 2017 |
| Term |
5 years, with an option for extension by mutual consent |
| Notice period |
6 months from either party |
The Vice-Chancellor is eligible to be a member of the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension and has received employer pension contributions at the same rate as for other members of the scheme. Where a payment is made in lieu of employer pension contribution, this is calculated on the same basis as the employer contribution rate to ensure it is cost-neutral to the University.
The Vice-Chancellor’s salary has been determined according to a number of factors including, but not limited to:
- the depth of the Vice-Chancellor’s leadership, management and academic experience within the higher education section;
- the breadth of leadership responsibilities for one of the UK’s largest universities consisting of more than 46,000 students and over 7,000 staff based in campuses across the UK, China and Malaysia, as well as a global community of 320,000 alumni in more than 200 countries;
- the financial responsibilities for an institution with an annual turnover of circa £800 million, and which contributes more than £1 billion to the national economy, £677 million to the regional economy, and supports 18,000 jobs; and
- the accountability for sustaining a TEF Gold-ranked educational experience for our students, and a world-leading research portfolio worth £600 million devoted to solving some of the most pressing global challenges, to the benefit of society in the UK and around the world.
Salaries for the Vice-Chancellor and senior staff are set by the Remuneration Committee – part of the University’s Council, its governing body – which comprises independent external members of Council, who possess commercial and public sector pay knowledge and expertise. Objectives for the Vice-Chancellor are set annually by the Chair of Council and performance and progress against them reported to and assessed by the Remuneration Committee.
The Vice-Chancellor is not a member of the Remuneration Committee and has no role in determining remuneration for herself or those under her line management. She does not attend meetings of the Remuneration Committee unless specifically invited to discuss the performance of senior staff under her line management. Details of the membership and terms of reference of the Remuneration Committee can be found here.
In 2022/23, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West received only the national salary increase of 2% implemented for all staff covered by UCEA negotiations.
Professor Shearer West was employed for the full financial year. Her basic salary was 8.1 times the median basic pay of staff (2022: 8.0), where the median pay is calculated on a full-time equivalent basis for the salaries paid by the University to its staff excluding agency staff.
Her total remuneration was 7.9 times (2022: 7.4 times) the median total remuneration of staff, where the median total remuneration is calculated on a full-time equivalent basis for the total remuneration by the provider of its staff. In both cases the median is calculated gross, i.e. prior to any voluntary waiver of salary.