@Quixote @Mungo we had the big financial cock up (let's spend millions on a building, oh look there's no more money so we'll have redundancies and delay, redefine and reduce promotions, oh look that building has asbestos) .
This is the standard template across the sector.
Massive capex overspend on prestige projects, based on demonstrably over optimistic projections of income growth based on international student numbers.
Realise that income growth does not match projections.
Institute draconian cost saving measures that damage the delivery of core activities (research and teaching).
Set off a death spiral where degradation in research and teaching leads to decline in student intake and reduced research grant income. Leading to the need for further cuts…
All the while, the reduction in teaching provision is consistently sold as ‘improving the student experience’, so not only do we look incompetent, but dishonest to boot.
I have only recently started interacting with the highest levels of University management, and I have been struck by just how dismal and inadequate they are. Not one of them projects any kind of genuine vision or leadership. They are small people with small ideas unable to grasp any level of complexity.
And yet they draw gargantuan salaries.
I have done some analyses on the salaries that our ‘leaders’ receive. I was looking for publicly funded organisations of a similar size and complexity. There are not many. The two that are most comparable: an armoured division in a NATO army and some of the big NHS trusts (such as Guys and St Thomas in London). Similar numbers of personnel: 10-15000 people. Similar annual budgets (between 1 and 1.5 billion). Similarly composed of extremely complex and highly specialised sub units, many with different internal structures and cultures. Employing highly trained individuals who are globally sought after for their knowledge and skills. Very serious consequences when mistakes are made.
So the question is: what does their senior leadership get paid, and how does it compare of our Principal?
Answer: CEO of a big NHS trust and the Major General commanding an armoured division get paid in the region of £125-150K. Our principal? £450K plus a suite of benefits that take the value of the annual remuneration package to somewhere in the region of £750K.
So we are dramatically over paying our leadership and receiving objectively poor decision making in return.
