Fatcat Oxford University chief claims £1.60 bar on expenses despite her £360,000 salary
Vice-chancellor Louise Richardson put in for the Pret a Manger treat and a £2.85 Starbucks Berry Bircher
A FATCAT Oxford University chief claimed a £1.60 “Love Bar” as part of a vast £92,000 expenses bill, The Sun can reveal.
Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson - who gets a £360,000 basic annual salary - clawed back the cost of the Pret a Manger flapjack during a visit to London.
Other petty claims submitted by Professor Richardson, who has led Oxford since 2016, included a £2.85 Starbucks Berry Bircher pot bought on the day she appeared before the Commons Education Select Committee.
The receipts emerged amid growing anger from MPs and the public at the huge pay packets doled out to higher education bosses.
Prof Richardson has been quick to defend her own salary - hitting out at the media and politicians for giving her a “rough ride”.
And in 2017 she insisted: “My salary is high compared to academics.
Other claims included £145 in Wimbledon tickets and a £1,262 stay at Hong Kong’s luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel
“Compared to a footballer, it looks very different.”
Her £92,000 expenses haul, claimed between her appointment and last October, was revealed last year by the university’s student newspaper, Cherwell.
It said Prof Richardson’s bill included £48,000 in business class flights and £24,000 on personal drivers.
Other claims included £145 in Wimbledon tickets and a £1,262 stay at Hong Kong’s luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel.
At a time when students have to take out stonking loans, it seems incredible that vice-chancellors’ pay is so excessive
Tory MP Robert Halfon
Prof Richardson’s huge salary does not even place her in the top ten of university chiefs’ pay.
In February it emerged London Business School boss Francois Ortalo-Magné earned a staggering £596,000 last year, while Imperial’s Professor Alice Gast was paid £576,000.
In February, Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Select Committee, hit out after it emerged average pay for vice chancellors had passed £250,000 for the first time.
He blasted: “At a time when students have to take out stonking loans, it seems incredible that vice-chancellors’ pay is so excessive.
“Student loans should be funding good quality tuition and employment outcomes, not the lavish lifestyles of vice-chancellors.”
A university spokeswoman at first branded the claims “fake news”.
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But when challenged, she said: “All staff, at all levels of the University, are within their rights to claim work related expenses, including food and beverage charges.
“The items in question were not submitted as individual expenses but were part of a legitimate claim for a meal on those days.
“This falls well within the University’s staff expenses policy.”
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