Vice Chancellor's luxury lifestyle comes to an end - De Montford

£350K salary.
Luxury house and two cars paid for.
£37K in one year on business flights.
Top restaurant meals in New York, New Orleans, Seville, Stockholm and Shanghai.
£3k for membership of the Ivy in London.

You might think this would be the package of a successful City director or the founder of a leading global games/app company.

In fact it is what Leicester De Montford University, currently ranked #71st in the Guardian league tables, was providing for its Vice Chancellor, Marcus Shellard, until he was sacked recently after a forensic audit.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6995789/Professor-Moneybags-Dominic-Shellard-shows-institutions-brink-bankruptcy.html

The story highlights the insane levels of overpay now given to top university executives - and the grotesque lack of accountability they have.

The senior managements of many universities are mostly notable for their incompetence, yet they remain amongst the highest paid executives in the country.

Never heard of this De Montford place.

You must be one of their disgruntled students.

I'm a disgruntled member of a university staff. We have our own versions of the bloated De Montford fat cat. Enabled by the Board.

Firms can pay their staff what they wish.

£350K salary.
Luxury house and two cars paid for.
£37K in one year on business flights.
Top restaurant meals in New York, New Orleans, Seville, Stockholm and Shanghai.
£3k for membership of the Ivy in London.

You might think this would be the package of a successful City director or the founder of a leading global games/app company.

In fact it is what Leicester De Montford University, currently ranked #71st in the Guardian league tables, was providing for its Vice Chancellor, Marcus Shellard, until he was sacked recently after a forensic audit.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6995789/Professor-Moneybags-Dominic-Shellard-shows-institutions-brink-bankruptcy.html

The story highlights the insane levels of overpay now given to top university executives - and the grotesque lack of accountability they have.

The senior managements of many universities are mostly notable for their incompetence, yet they remain amongst the highest paid executives in the country.

I am tempted to state that this is borderline criminality, but I acknowledge that it is pervasive in the higher education sector. Many universities are aggressively expanding to attract more students and earn more money. Even “useless” universities are selling dreams to gullible youngsters by twisting league tables to suit their profile.

I once saw a passing ad on a bus that showed University X is top rated for happy students and I was like “what???”. Some kid would see that and go pay £9,000 a year based on something that is meaningless.

It is very sad to see how crazy the system has become. We often attack bankers and lawyers for wrecking the system with their clever tactics, but we fail to see the other people who subtly ruin the system for a lot of people. It is messed up.

It is messed up and it will most probably end in a crash like the banks, with the taxpayer left to foot the bill for the lavish overspending and students ending up being kicked out onto the streets from failed institutions.

The banks are deeply involved in this one as well of course, as they are lending huge amounts to the universities for their dubious spending splurges and lavish top exec salary/packages, secure in the knowledge that they will be bailed by the taxpayer when it goes belly up - exactly the logic that applied to the vast overlending to Irish house building, Spanish airports and Greek military aircraft.

Firms can pay their staff what they wish.

They're not 'firms' - that's the point. Many even have charitable status.

I didn't suggest there were firms. Many top managers in charities or NHS or public life earn very good numbers; many headteachers of publicly funded schools are in the 6 figures. Considering the much more revered status as a V-C versus secondary school head, I somewhat agree with the high pay. These are often organisations dealing in tens of millions of pounds in revenue each year.

'And what perks! De Montfort provided him with a rent-free, two-floor flat in a Georgian house on campus. A car and driver were also made available on occasion.'

Top restaurant meals in New York, New Orleans, Seville, Stockholm and Shanghai..

'lunches and dinners as far afield as New York, New Orleans, Seville, Stockholm and Shanghai'

High pay isn't inherently an issue. It's an important role and if you want to attract good people you have to pay them well. Whether the money spent on sending him around the world to these events is worth it is a matter for the university, but, given the number and location of the events, the spending figures don't seem outrageous to me.

I don't see anything to suggest that his two cars were paid for. The (highly critical) article limits itself to saying:



Obviously it's common for such offices in universities to come with accommodation (e.g. every Master of an Oxbridge college?).

Can you substantiate



?

Because, again, the highly critical authors simply go with:



If the audit revealed shenanigans on his part then he should be held to account. But the embellished account presented in OP of this particular VC's remuneration package doesn't in itself say all that much about anything in particular.

As to the 'charity' point: um, well yes. Nothing about that suggests that it shouldn't allocate substantial resources to management, and indeed international events, if that is what is thought best for the governance and the objects of the charity. There are high earners across the charities sector, and there's nothing basically wrong with that.

The Mail has repeatedly attempted to contact Shellard's sister, Sonya, with no response. University accounts show that in 2017-18 a Cheshire-based training company called Vector received £67,800 in fees from De Montfort. Ms Shellard is a director of and majority shareholder in Vector.

High pay isn't inherently an issue. It's an important role and if you want to attract good people you have to pay them well. Whether the money spent on sending him around the world to these events is worth it is a matter for the university, but, given the number and location of the events, the spending figures don't seem outrageous to me.

I don't see anything to suggest that his two cars were paid for. The (highly critical) article limits itself to saying:



Obviously it's common for such offices in universities to come with accommodation (e.g. every Master of an Oxbridge college?).

Can you substantiate



?

Because, again, the highly critical authors simply go with:



If the audit revealed shenanigans on his part then he should be held to account. But the embellished account presented in OP of this particular VC's remuneration package doesn't in itself say all that much about anything in particular.

As to the 'charity' point: um, well yes. Nothing about that suggests that it shouldn't allocate substantial resources to management, and indeed international events, if that is what is thought best for the governance and the objects of the charity. There are high earners across the charities sector, and there's nothing basically wrong with that.

That sounds pretty iffy though and is probably one of the real reasons they were able to give him the boot...

Socially engineering yourself a series of mystifyingly generous pay rises and anachronistic benefits in kind probably isn't a crime - but that doesn't mean it's right either.

I struggle to believe that the substantial perqs afforded to this (and many) VCs could ever be considered 'in the institution's best interests'.

I struggle to believe that the substantial perqs afforded to this (and many) VCs could ever be considered 'in the institution's best interests'.