University vice-chancellors deserve more pay, not less. Here’s why

Yosser Hughes, from Boys from the Blackstuff, famously said: “Gissa job – I can do that”. Of course, he mostly wasn’t qualified for the jobs he was after. He couldn’t do that. Lots of people these days seem to think the job of running a giant university is an easy one, and they could do that.

The reality is, they couldn’t. It turns out there is a shortage of applicants for these jobs because, compared with equivalent jobs in the private sector, they are seriously underpaid.