The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Debra Humphris, leads a large and complex organisation with over 2,000 staff and 21,000 students across five campuses that generates £700 million for the regional economy.
Her annual salary of £241,624 is well below the sector average and her remuneration package does not include a range of benefits available to senior staff at other universities (eg free accommodation) and she does not take the pension contribution and personal car allowance to which she is entitled.
Since arriving at the university, Professor Humphris has taken the same annual salary increase awarded to all other staff at the university and has waived her contractual right to a performance bonus, instead using this money to support staff and student-related activities across the university.
When combined with a carryover from last year and Gift Aid the Vice-Chancellor’s personal philanthropic giving to the university last year totalled £35,437. This included:
- £5,000 to support students showing their work in Graduate Fashion Week
- £4,000 to enable a scoping mission to establish a research partnership in Ghana
- £3,000 to support the university’s membership of Women Into Science and Engineering
- £2,057 to support a Community Media 4 Kenya project to establish a community radio station in a remote village
- £2,000 to support summer student internships in the School of Applied Social Science
- £2,000 to support an exploratory visit to the Queensland University of technology to promote future collaboration with the School of Health Sciences
- £1,300 to support a showcase event for the work of Digital Media students in Hastings.
Read a full report on the Vice-Chancellor's fund and philanthropy 2017-18 (pdf).
The university’s Remuneration Committee, made up of members of the Board of Governors, sets the Vice-Chancellor’s salary in line with the ACEVO Good Pay Guide, ensuring that remuneration levels are linked to a regular and objective system of performance appraisal and benchmarked against comparable roles.