A new survey by Times Higher Education of the salaries of British universities’ vice chancellors is prompting outrage in some quarters over the average compensation package of £193,970 ($271,915), up 9 percent in the last academic year.

Sir Colin Campbell, who retired at the start of the current academic year as the head of the University of Nottingham, was the highest paid, with a 90-percent increase over the previous year for a total compensation package of £585,000 ($820,076). The figure, high by British standards, is relatively modest in comparison to the pay packages received by American university chief executives, which regularly exceed $1-million, according to Chronicle surveys.

One reason the figures are provoking such a reaction in Britain is that, as the British magazine reported, “for the first time, vice chancellors earned more than the average private-sector chief executive.”

The head of the University and College Union, Britain’s main faculty union, issued a statement expressing her organization’s unhappiness with the survey’s findings. “When staff are being warned pay increases may lead to redundancies, it is quite incredible and rather distasteful that vice chancellors again have enjoyed such exorbitant pay rises,” Sally Hunt said.

The survey’s findings also drew fire because its publication coincided with protests over planned tuition increases.

Universities UK, a group representing vice chancellors, released its own statement in response to the survey, emphasizing that “the combined total of all 168 vice chancellors’ and principals’ remuneration is less than 0.2 percent of the £13.5-billion staff costs in the sector.” The group’s chief executive, Diana Warwick, said in the statement that “the remuneration packages for vice chancellors reflect what it takes to recruit and retain individuals able to run complex, multimillion-pound organizations, which are operating in an increasingly competitive, global market.” —Aisha Labi