Thirty-two university presidents in the US earned more than $1 million in 2013. by The Chronicle of ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ found that Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, was the highest-paid university leader in the US, earning a staggering $4.6 million, which included basic salary, bonuses and other compensation.

It is perhaps not surprising that a private Ivy League institution has the top-earning president. But when glancing further down the list, to what extent does presidents¡¯ pay correlate with university prestige (when the latter is judged on position in the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ World University Rankings 2015-16)?

The answer is, not much. While Amy Gutmann, president of University of Pennsylvania (ranked 17th), was the second highest-paid university leader, many lower-ranked institutions are paying millions to their president each year. Yeshiva University (164) president Richard Joel earned $2.5 million, while Scott Cowen, then-president of Tulane University (251-300), took $1.6 million.

When crunching the numbers for the UK, it is a similar story. The highest-paid vice-chancellor in the 2013-14 academic year, based on THE¡¯s annual survey, was Neil Gorman, former leader of Nottingham Trent University (601-800), who earned a total of ?623,000, including pension and other benefits. The University of Oxford¡¯s (2) Andrew Hamilton came second, followed by Martin Bean, former vice-chancellor of The Open University (401-500).

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Six of the 20 top-earning UK vice-chancellors led universities based in London, perhaps suggesting that location is a stronger influence on pay than prestige. In comparison, four of the institutions in the equivalent list for the US are based in New York.

Almost all of the 20 highest-paid university presidents in the US led private institutions; Pennsylvania State University and Texas A&M University are the only public universities featured, in seventh and 17th?place respectively.

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Four of the 20 highest-paid university presidents in the US were women, compared with just two in the UK.

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com

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Below is a list of the top 20 institutions in the UK and the US ranked by the pay of the vice-chancellor/president, and filtered to include only institutions that feature in the top 800 of the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ World University Rankings 2015-16 (on this basis seven US and two UK institutions have been excluded).

The US figures are based on data collected by The Chronicle of ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ on the pay of private and public university presidents in the 2013 calendar year.

The UK figures are based on data collected by ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ on the pay of university vice-chancellors in the 2013-14 academic year.

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20 highest-paid university presidents in the US

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20 highest-paid university vice-chancellors in the UK