Edinburgh University principal tells Holyrood committee he 'doesn't know his exact salary'

Scotland’s highest paid university principal told a Holyrood committee that he doesn’t know his exact salary.

Edinburgh University’s principal professor Sir Peter Mathieson was called to give evidence at an Education, Children and Young People Committee on Wednesday morning after announcing in February that the university was looking to make cuts of £140m.

Mathieson previously said that cuts of that magnitude could not be reached solely by voluntary redundancies.

On Wednesday morning, Mathieson said the university “hadn’t specifically put any jobs under threat”, but admitted that they are seeking to reduce recurring costs by £140m – £90m of which will come from staffing costs and £50m from non-staff costs.

“The only way to put the University of Edinburgh back onto a sustainable footing is to reduce our recurrent expenditure, and 58% of our recurring expenditure is on staff,” he told the committee.

Mathieson also confirmed that he accepted a 5% pay rise last year, and a 2.5% pay rise in January amidst the Edinburgh University’s growing financial pressures.

Yet he insisted that he did not know the “exact figure” of his annual salary.

Mathieson is often quoted in the media as making around £418,000 a year as the principle of the University of Edinburgh.

However, he told the committee that he “doesn’t scrutinise” his pay slips and “doesn’t know the exact figure”.

“The figure that’s often quoted in the press is something around £400,000 a year,” Mathieson said.

“I don’t think it’s quite as high as that, but I’m certainly very well paid.”

Committee convener Douglas Ross told Mathieson that the committee would have a “very difficult meeting” if he couldn’t answer a “very basic question” about his salary. Still, Mathieson doubled down and said he “didn’t carry the figure around in his head”.

Ross continued to challenge Mathieson at the committee meeting, asking if he is paid more than the First Minister of Scotland – or indeed more than the Prime Minister.

Mathieson replied: “I don’t know, but it’s something that’s often said in the media.”

In his defence, Mathieson said CEOs of other organisations with a £1.4bn turnover are making between £5m and £17m a year.

Mathieson stopped short of saying he deserved to be on par with those salaries. He said the university “made an offer and he accepted it”.

Given the massive cuts Mathieson is overseeing, Ross asked if his salary was an area where the university could see a reduction.

Mathieson insisted that “you could pay the senior team at the University of Edinburgh nothing and it would make almost no difference to the size of the expenditure challenge” it is facing.

The committee meeting comes just weeks after staff at the University of Edinburgh backed strike action over the budget cuts and job losses.

It also comes after the university’s top academic body declared “no confidence” in the executive’s handling of the financial crisis.

The no-confidence vote was passed “by a large majority” of members at a University Senate meeting at the end of May.