The University of Manchester’s new vice-chancellor was paid almost £150,000 more in pay and benefits than his predecessor, the institution’s annual accounts have revealed.

Duncan Ivison received a base salary of £350,000 a year after moving from the University of Sydney to take over from Nancy Rothwell on her retirement last year.

Rothwell, a well-known advocate for restraint in senior leader pay, received a salary of £260,000 for seven years in a row, which was the lowest of the 24 members of the Russell Group.

The physiologist, who led the institution for 14 years, said that she had felt it was “inappropriate” to be paid more.

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Ivison, former deputy vice-chancellor for research at Sydney, also received £16,000 in relocation benefits and £51,000 in pension contributions in his first year in post.

This total remuneration of £417,000 represents a 56 per cent increase from Rothwell’s final pay package of £268,000 last year.

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In its financial accounts for 2024-25, among the first to be published, Manchester said its remuneration committee recommended setting its total pay package for vice-chancellors at “the mid-point in the Russell Group”.

“This balances the scale and complexity of the role at a globally recognised university, carrying ultimate responsibility for our performance, reputation, and impact – and the need to spend the university’s money carefully,” added a spokesperson.

The uplift meant that Ivison, a professor of political philosophy, receives a total pay package 12.8 times larger than the institution’s median (£32,542) – compared with 8.5 times for Rothwell.

Ivison’s wages of £350,000 would move him into the top 10 of Russell Group salaries based on last year’s figures.

But it is below the average paid to vice-chancellors in the Australian sector, who receive wages equivalent to £487,000 on average, with those leading the top institutions paid far more. 

He also received some pay during the 2023-24 academic year when he joined the senior leadership team – including £29,200 salary, £29,300 for relocation and £4,000 in employer pension contributions.

On top of her final pay package as vice-chancellor, Rothwell was paid an additional £43,500 for her work as campaign ambassador and external relations adviser in 2024-25. This means Manchester paid almost £800,000 in total to Ivison and Rothwell across the past two years.

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The university’s report said that despite an “increasingly challenging economic environment”, it had achieved positive financial results for 2024-25 underpinned by its strong international reputation.

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Manchester recorded an adjusted operating surplus of £84.4 million, which was up from £41.5 million in 2023-24, and a net cash inflow from operating activities of £126.7 million – £38 million more than the year before.

Its total income rose by more than £57 million mainly because of a significant increase in tuition fee income from international students. This now makes up 35 per cent of total income, which the report said was increasingly as a result of pricing rather than rising student numbers.

The annual accounts warned that the UK higher education model continues to create reliance on foreign students and that Manchester’s success in international markets is “currently both a strength and a source of risk”.

Challenges in international student recruitment were cited by the University of Leeds, the only other major institution to have published its accounts, after it reported an operating deficit for 2024-25.

In its financial accounts, Leeds recorded an underlying operating deficit of £8 million before movement in Universities Superannuation Scheme pension provision – compared with a surplus of £60 million the year before.

The university suffered a 42 per cent fall in international postgraduate taught student numbers from the record level in 2023-24 and a fall of 16 per cent in international student fee income.

It cited the impact of the downturn in the international student recruitment market, its increasingly competitive nature and the “adverse impact of the UK’s national rhetoric and political interventions related to immigration policy”.

Although it had “responded strongly” to mitigate against these negative effects, Leeds warned that there has been a “market correction” in the overseas market, and that the international student levy would present further challenges.

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Leeds paid £338,000 in total remuneration to its interim vice-chancellor Hai-Sui Yu and new leader Shearer West, which was well below the £694,000 it spent on its two leaders during 2023-24.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com