Southampton has been mentioned in media coverage about university expenses ahead of an edition of Dispatches on Channel 4 this evening (Monday 26 February).
The reports note that in a Freedom of Information response, the University of Southampton disclosed senior management expenses totalling £397,000 in a two-year period (2015-2017). However, as we have pointed out to the makers of the programme, our response included expenses incurred by 17 members of the senior management team, including all Deans, while other universities only included a small number of senior executives. Our response also included all travel expenses, while other universities did not include centrally booked travel. No attempt appears to have been made by the programme-makers to ensure a balanced like-for-like comparison between universities.
We sent the following statement to Dispatches:
“The University of Southampton is a world-renowned teaching and research institution with over 24,000 students, 6,500 members of staff, and a turnover of £600m per annum, of which less than 25% comes from UK/EU tuition fees. Its education and research takes place on a worldwide basis, with campuses in China and Malaysia and active partnerships with organisations around the globe. These legitimate and carefully scrutinised expenses, by 17 key academic leaders and senior management, were an essential and appropriate investment in the University’s UK and global partnerships and research.”
