David Willetts defends high pay for university vice-chancellors amid mounting criticism of "greedy" salaries

David Willetts, the former universities minister, has defended the high pay of university vice-chancellors amid criticism of their “greedy” salaries.

Lord Willetts, a Conservative peer who raised tuition fees to £9,000 in the coalition government, admitted that some of the highest salaries given to university chiefs are “egregious”, but said the sums pale into insignificance alongside total university budgets.

“I can see that some of those examples are egregious, and I can understand the furore,” he told BBC Newsnight when asked about the £451,000 pay packet given to the vice-chancellor of the University of Bath.

“But let’s keep this in proportion. There’s about 100 vice-chancellors in English universities, if … they’re each earning £100,000 too much, that’s £10m pounds.

“[Tuition fees] bring £11bn a year into our universities … to deprive them of that because you think £10m is badly spent would be absolutely letting the tail wag the dog. It’s not proportionate.”

“The level of vice-chancellor pay is not a reason for changing a system that is delivering to over a million students, and bringing billions of pounds into higher education.”

Lord Willetts’ comments come a month after Jo Johnson, the current universities minister, urged universities to show “pay restraint” and criticised the £350,000 package given to Sir Christopher Snowden, vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton.

Vice-chancellors have faced criticism in recent weeks as examples of high pay and generous benefits have emerged, at a time when many Russell Group universities are raising student tuition fees to £9,250.

The vice-chancellor of the University of West Scotland, one of the lowest-ranked in Britain, recently said that his £227,000 pay package is insufficient because it does not buy him a grace-and-favour home.

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Meanwhile, Professor George Holmes - vice-chancellor of the University of Bolton - defended his £222,120 pay, insisting he should not be criticised for being successful.

The yacht-owning Professor Holmes said at the time: “I hope students use their education to get a good job and then they can have a Bentley. Do you want to be taught by someone who is successful or a failure?”

Speaking on Newsnight, Lord Willetts also defended universities against claims they are recruiting too many students into courses that will not land them higher salaries after graduating, with a 2015 report finding that more than half of British graduates were in non-graduate roles.

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“A lot of those jobs that are called non-graduate jobs, when you look into it closely there’s quite a debate,” he said.

“Maybe those jobs have become more technically demanding, maybe the regulations are more onerous … there does seem to be a process where jobs do become graduate jobs, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.”