The Student Room Group

Vice-Chancellor Salaries.

Why has so little been done to lower their salaries? Universities are still trying to justify their extortionate salaries, some even have webpages to try and justify it. It cannot be justified in my opinion, the average VC salary is 2 times as much as the Prime Minister's salary and around 7 times higher than the salaries of the average lecturer.

How are students content with this? Is it too much effort to protest against something that is blatantly wrong, do they just want an easy and cushy path through life?

This must stop, when I go to university in a few weeks I would like to begin protests against this, do you think organising peaceful protests could result in being kicked out of the university?
Original post by alws
Why has so little been done to lower their salaries? Universities are still trying to justify their extortionate salaries, some even have webpages to try and justify it. It cannot be justified in my opinion, the average VC salary is 2 times as much as the Prime Minister's salary and around 7 times higher than the salaries of the average lecturer.

How are students content with this? Is it too much effort to protest against something that is blatantly wrong, do they just want an easy and cushy path through life?

This must stop, when I go to university in a few weeks I would like to begin protests against this, do you think organising peaceful protests could result in being kicked out of the university?

This is normal lol. University is like a business now so it’s like complaining about a CEO salary.
Original post by alws
Why has so little been done to lower their salaries? Universities are still trying to justify their extortionate salaries, some even have webpages to try and justify it. It cannot be justified in my opinion, the average VC salary is 2 times as much as the Prime Minister's salary and around 7 times higher than the salaries of the average lecturer.

How are students content with this? Is it too much effort to protest against something that is blatantly wrong, do they just want an easy and cushy path through life?

This must stop, when I go to university in a few weeks I would like to begin protests against this, do you think organising peaceful protests could result in being kicked out of the university?


Like with most things, we kick up a fuss and huff and puff about it when we see yet another article in the news about VC salaries etc. A week later or so, most people forget and move on with their lives.

There was some protest/demonstration/occupation at the University of Edinburgh re: lecturer's conditions/UCU strike and also the salary + generous benefits/golden handshake the new VC received in January 2018. Not sure it had much of an impact. To be honest, it only pissed students off even more as it disrupted lectures (they occupied the biggest theatre on campus)
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Professional G
This is normal lol. University is like a business now so it’s like complaining about a CEO salary.


That is the exact problem, and besides CEO salaries are too high too. Why do people admire these fools, there are no longer goals to help society - most people just want to be rich and waste their money on useless things.
The whole problem is people like you saying "this is normal lol", why doesn't it bother you?
Original post by alws
That is the exact problem, and besides CEO salaries are too high too. Why do people admire these fools, there are no longer goals to help society - most people just want to be rich and waste their money on useless things.

This is what happens in a capitalist society. There’s bound to be ways to make yourself rich. Money runs the world and theres not much to do about it. Just have to live your life I guess.
Reply 5
Original post by Blue_Cow
Like with most things, we kick up a fuss and huff and puff about it when we see yet another article in the news about VC salaries etc. A week later or so, most people forget and move on with their lives.

There was some protest/demonstration/occupation at the University of Edinburgh re: lecturer's conditions/UCU strike and also the salary + generous benefits/golden handshake the new VC received in January 2018. Not sure it had much of an impact, to be honest, it only pissed students off even more as it disrupted lectures (they occupied the biggest theatre on campus)

Well this injustice is something I am continually aware of, I know the VC salaries haven't decreased since the media outcry, in fact at many universities the pay has increased. It is something that disturbs me and concerns me and I will go against it. I am not trying to kick up a "huff/puff" for no reason, at least I care about where my money goes, I am fed up with this highly apathetic generation. Is anyone on TSR going to agree with me, or are you all passionate anarcho-capitalists?
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 6
Original post by Professional G
This is what happens in a capitalist society. There’s bound to be ways to make yourself rich. Money runs the world and theres not much to do about it. Just have to live your life I guess.

So you don't think it is an issue? What about companies where the CEO earns millions but the cleaner earns the minimum wage and can hardly afford the bills?
Original post by alws
So you don't think it is an issue? What about companies where the CEO earns millions but the cleaner earns the minimum wage and can hardly afford the bills?

What’s the alternative? I hate communism with a passion and socialism sounds good on paper but no one knows how to implement properly.
Original post by alws
Why has so little been done to lower their salaries? Universities are still trying to justify their extortionate salaries, some even have webpages to try and justify it. It cannot be justified in my opinion, the average VC salary is 2 times as much as the Prime Minister's salary and around 7 times higher than the salaries of the average lecturer.

How are students content with this? Is it too much effort to protest against something that is blatantly wrong, do they just want an easy and cushy path through life?

This must stop, when I go to university in a few weeks I would like to begin protests against this, do you think organising peaceful protests could result in being kicked out of the university?


What's wrong with large private organisations paying their leaders a competitive rate? If they were to get a job in the private sector rather than the non-profit sector they'd be making millions - they're already underpaid as it is versus US university presidents.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by alws
So you don't think it is an issue? What about companies where the CEO earns millions but the cleaner earns the minimum wage and can hardly afford the bills?


dumb comparison.

the cleaner is a commodity, a CEO isn't.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 10
Original post by Professional G
What’s the alternative? I hate communism with a passion and socialism sounds good on paper but no one knows how to implement properly.


"Social democracy" is essentially socialism that has been implemented by democracy, it is economically still a form of capitalism but businesses are more closely regulated such that people don't earn ridiculous salaries when they don't deserve them and people aren't taken advantage of by corporations. Social democracy has been highly successful in Scandinavian countries and is also the system proposed by Jeremy Corbyn. There are also examples of pure socialism working pretty well, for example in Cuba and the Yugoslav Republic - of course socialism makes the average person seem a little worse off, but overall society is more fair. Of course capitalists think socialism has never worked, because capitalists judge a country's success on how much **** people buy that they don't need.
Reply 11
Original post by Princepieman
What's wrong with large private organisations paying their leaders a competitive rate? If they were to get a job in the private sector rather than the non-profit sector they'd be making millions - they're already underpaid as it is versus US university presidents.

Posted from TSR Mobile

1. Most universities in the UK are not private, so you can't use that argument when talking about VC salaries.

2. They are not "underpaid". What a load of bs.
Reply 12
Original post by Princepieman
dumb comparison.

the cleaner is a commodity, a CEO isn't.

Posted from TSR Mobile


A cleaner is a human being and is employed by an organisation that should treat them with respect, not as a commodity. CEOs are also a commodity if that is your view of cleaners, CEOs often move company and are attracted by higher salaries/golden handshakes.

Sociopathic fools like you love capitalism and you are the reason it is a **** system for so many people.
Reply 13
Original post by alws
A cleaner is a human being and is employed by an organisation that should treat them with respect, not as a commodity. CEOs are also a commodity if that is your view of cleaners, CEOs often move company and are attracted by higher salaries/golden handshakes.

Sociopathic fools like you love capitalism and you are the reason it is a **** system for so many people.


CEOs (and all professionals) are paid according to the value they add to their company. You can't b itch about someone earning more than you just because they're working harder than you? Take Elon Musk for example, the man has worked 100 hour weeks for 15 years, yet you'd complain when you hear that he's being 'overpaid'. You are pretty stupid ngl.
Reply 14
Original post by Nuttyy
CEOs (and all professionals) are paid according to the value they add to their company. You can't b itch about someone earning more than you just because they're working harder than you? Take Elon Musk for example, the man has worked 100 hour weeks for 15 years, yet you'd complain when you hear that he's being 'overpaid'. You are pretty stupid ngl.


Let's be childish and start calling other people stupid shall we? I'm so sorry to upset you little psychopathic anarcho-capitalist. :emo:
The reality is a lot of management/CEOs and VCs work much less hard than the staff that work lower down in the business (who actually create the majority of wealth for the business) and that is a great injustice. Even when businesses are close to financial crash the CEO continues to earn massive amounts of money, even though their decisions have led to the financial failure of the business - now that is stupid.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by alws
The reality is a lot of management/CEOs and VCs work much less hard than the staff that work lower down in the business (who actually create the majority of wealth for the business) and that is a great injustice.


If you're going to quote "reality" then prove it. Don't just make stuff up. You've never actually seen a CEO/VC work, have you? Where do you think wealth is created in an organisation? Cleaners don't create wealth.

I'm sure you'll find some socialist society to join and go wave flags somewhere, meanwhile the other 99.9% of students will be having fun and concentrating on their degree.
Reply 16
Original post by Duncan2012
If you're going to quote "reality" then prove it. Don't just make stuff up. You've never actually seen a CEO/VC work, have you? Where do you think wealth is created in an organisation? Cleaners don't create wealth.

I'm sure you'll find some socialist society to join and go wave flags somewhere, meanwhile the other 99.9% of students will be having fun and concentrating on their degree.

Businesses don't need to create wealth, they need to provide a good quality product or service and pay all their staff a decent wage. Corporate profits continue to rise rapidly but normal people's salaries have increased so little that inflation makes the increase almost negligible.

I know what CEOs do, they spend their time in meetings and making business deals (and yes I do agree and believe that they work long hours) but as I say these deals are to increase profits and satisfy their greed, not help their workers.

Yes, I will do that and I will be proud to do so. Have fun getting a highly paid **** job, have fun wasting your cash on useless material things that won't make you happy. Just remember how many bankers/CEOs quit and become teachers/builders/charity workers.
Capitalism:
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by alws
1. Most universities in the UK are not private, so you can't use that argument when talking about VC salaries.

2. They are not "underpaid". What a load of bs.

most universities in the UK are private non-profit organisations that get government funding and are regulated by the government. it's like saying RBS is not a private institution - very ridiculous claim.

they are indeed underpaid. vice chancellor of oxford makes £350k, the president of most ivy league universities make millions of dollars.
Original post by alws
A cleaner is a human being and is employed by an organisation that should treat them with respect, not as a commodity. CEOs are also a commodity if that is your view of cleaners, CEOs often move company and are attracted by higher salaries/golden handshakes.

Sociopathic fools like you love capitalism and you are the reason it is a **** system for so many people.

cleaning is a job. the cleaner is the human being. cleaning *as a job* is a commodity. anyone can clean - there are no barriers to cleaning jobs.

a CEO is not a commodity job because there is only a small pool of talent capable enough to lead a large organisation.

there's nothing sociopathic about this view you're just pulling out strawmen because you can't detach the idea of people from the idea of jobs and markets.
Original post by alws
Let's be childish and start calling other people stupid shall we? I'm so sorry to upset you little psychopathic anarcho-capitalist. :emo:
The reality is a lot of management/CEOs and VCs work much less hard than the staff that work lower down in the business (who actually create the majority of wealth for the business) and that is a great injustice. Even when businesses are close to financial crash the CEO continues to earn massive amounts of money, even though their decisions have led to the financial failure of the business - now that is stupid.


yeah because it's really easy to be at the helm of decisions and actions that affect tons of people. your average staff couldn't give two shits because at the end of the day they don't have to.

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