William Armstrong
[[FOI #21338 email]]
13 November 2009
Our Ref: FOI 2009/175 – F0074752
Dear Mr Armstrong,
Re: Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – Request for Information
Thank you for your email which was received by the University on 18 October 2009 timed
20:47 hours, requesting the following information:
A report in the Sunday Herald today reads as follows:
Glasgow University has also left itself open to criticism over its pay policy.
Its principal’s salary and pension package increased from £194,000 in 2004 to £284,000
in 2009 – a rise of about 47%. It was recently revealed that the university was
discussing plans to reduce its 45 academic departments to a maximum of 25.
A spokeswoman said the increases were “performance-related”.
In relation to all of the years within the period concerned can you please send me:
the performance criteria used by the university to establish the pay of the principal
and
the principal's performance against these criteria and any other information that you
hold that led you to conclude that it was a good use of public money to pay the
principal a forty seven per cent pay rise over this period
and
the average pay rise paid to university staff over this period.
University’s Response
Over the period 2004 to 2009, the Principal's salary was reviewed annually by the
Remuneration Committee, a body which comprises three lay members of the University Court.
Each year, the Committee discussed the Principal's performance in managing the institution.
The criteria for this discussion were not set out in a published document, but they included:
the financial performance of the University; its success in student recruitment; its student
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satisfaction ratings; and its research outputs. All of these are matters on which the University
Court receives reports throughout the year in the course of its business.
There is one other set of information which the Committee considers in coming to its decision.
That is, data, on the salary levels of the Principals of other UK universities. This data is
referred to with a view to ensuring that Glasgow offers its Principal a salary that is competitive
with that offered by other major UK universities.
Over the period in question, 2004 to 2009, the average salary increase for staff in the
University was 33%.
The supply of documents under the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
does not give the applicant or whoever receives the information any right to re-use it in such a
way that might infringe the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (for example, by making
multiple copies, publishing or otherwise distributing the information to other individuals and the
public). The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (Consequential Modifications) Order
2004 ensured that Section 50 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“CDPA”)
applies to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“FOISA”).
Breach of copyright law is an actionable offence and the University expressly reserves its
rights and remedies available to it pursuant to the CDPA and common law. Further information
on copyright is available at the following website:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy.htm
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information will be handled in accordance with this procedure.
Yours sincerely,
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Office
