I have always thought that education should be free. For Britain to become the template of modernity in a fast-changing globalised world, we need a highly skilled and educated workforce. So asking young people to take on huge amounts of debt to help secure our collective future seems unfair. Asking them to take on huge amounts of debt to pay for the bloated pay of senior university staff is therefore entirely unacceptable.
That is why I resigned from the advisory board of the University of Bath yesterday. As the MP for Bristol North West I represent many current and future Bath students and their families, which is why I held the ex officio role to begin with. Students take on tens of thousands of pounds of debt to pay for their education, and many of their families help with the costs of being a student.
Revelations in the House of Lords that the vice-chancellor of Bath University received a pay rise to become the highest paid vice-chancellor in the country (on £451,000 a year) left me with little option. I could have accepted it as being “normal”, or I could take a stand. My constituents pay for an education, not excessive executive pay. And they elected me to take a stand. So I resigned.
I’ve had clear views about vice-chancellors’ pay for many years. As a former student union president I’ve been vocal in the past about excessive pay rises. And as a former governor of a university, I understand that the remuneration committees that take decisions on pay do so based on “market factors”, largely without public explanation. But in doing so, the public sector (in which I include “privatised” universities on purpose) risks falling foul of the same problem found in parts of the private sector.
When a small number of largely middle-class privately educated older men (who rotate from board to board) take decisions, there’s no surprise that inflation occurs across the board. “It’s what the market requires to secure the right talent.” But when the market is defined by the same group of people it can become a problem. I’m a pro-business, pro-profit politician, and I’m not attacking middle-class privately educated older men for a headline. But I am calling for more diversity on boards – with more women and workers being a good start – so that better decisions can be made.
And I’m joining Lord Adonis in calling on the government to take another look at the regulation of executive pay in the public sector, including universities. Theresa May has sadly U-turned on her promise to do this in the private sector, but at a time when most public sector workers are experiencing a regressive 1% pay cap, the government has a duty to act in the public sector. At Bath University, the pay ratio between the vice-chancellor and the lowest paid worker is 30:1. That can’t be right. I’m a firm believer that more equality results in a better country for both lower and higher earners to live in. And I know for sure that increasing inequality isn’t a feature of a modern Britain that I wish to be associated with.
I want the public sector to attract the best talent. And I want to reward the success of the exceptional people who help reform the delivery of the public services vital to the health of Britain. But I know we can do that alongside paying every public sector worker fairly, and ensuring that consumers of public services get the best value for the tax they pay. It’s a question of political priorities. And it can be done.
The age of austerity has resulted in savage cuts to frontline services, while executive pay in the public and private sectors has soared. That must now end.