# Manchester refute claim that Vice-Chancellor is highest expenses claimant
- Source: The Mancunion (https://staging.mancunion.com/news/manchester-refute-claim-that-vice-chancellor-is-highest-expenses-claimant)
- By: Alex Whitcomb
- Published: 2017-01-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Section: News
- Topics: University of Manchester, ucu, Dame Nancy Rothwell, Vice-Chancellor, expenses, Sunday Times, Vice-Chancellor expenses
**The Sunday Times reported that Dame Nancy Rothwell’s expenses are the highest among UK university chiefs, as well as revealing that Vice-Chancellors had claimed expenses for bottles of water and slices of cake**

The University of Manchester has today contested claims made by the *Sunday Times* that the University’s President and Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell is the highest claimant of expenses in the country.

The Freedom of Information requests sourced by the newspaper reported that the Vice-Chancellor — who earns a yearly salary of £275,000 — claimed £32,993 in expenses last year. This figure included a reported £29,751.21 of travel payments.

The figures also show a rise upon those reported in *The Mancunion* for the previous year. In that year, [Professor Rothwell claimed £22,256 on flights](http://mancunion.com/2015/03/10/nancy-rothwell-claims-22000-of-flights-on-expenses/) — including in excess of £15,000 on business class seats.

However, in response to this news a spokesman for the University of Manchester stated that: “The figure quoted in the *Sunday Times* includes business expenses related to travel and hotels costs accrued during the President and Vice-Chancellor’s work for the University. Many other universities only include personal sundry items in their freedom of information responses which has provided a distorted perspective on expenses related to The University of Manchester.”

They also cited the University and College Union’s (UCU) 'Transparency at The Top?*'* review into executive pay at universities. This report from February 2016 does not place Dame Nancy Rothwell among even the top 20 in terms of expense claims by Vice-Chancellors. Professor Simon Gaskell of Queen Mary University of London topped that list.

Manchester are not the only university to voice concern with the figures quoted in the newspaper. The *Sunday Times* also claimed that Edinburgh University’s Vice-Chancellor Sir Timothy O’Shea had claimed for parking tickets and buses, in spite of being “provided with an executive car and driver”.

Edinburgh University responded to the claims, telling *The* *Independent* that while the numbers quoted in the piece were indeed correct, the “executive car” in question is owned by the university and is not only used by the Vice-Chancellor.

These came as part of a report by the newspaper into a number of eye-catching expense claims by university heads.

These included Glasgow University’s Vice-Chancellor, whose expenses ranged from nights at the Ritz-Carlton in Singapore to banana cakes from Pret a Manger.

Glasgow University told *The Independent* that they would not be providing a comment.

News on executive pay at universities has become more prominent in recent years, particularly after the rise in tuition fees to £9,000 and [now to £9,250 per year](http://mancunion.com/2016/10/03/universities-charge-9500/).

According to *Times Higher Education*, Southampton University’s outgoing Vice-Chancellor Professor Don Nutbeam topped the list of salaries for 2015-16, including £252,000 for leaving his post early, plus a £43,000 "performance related bonus".