Pay increases to University vice-chancellors totalled £20 million last year, research by the Times Education Supplement has found.

Baroness Warwick, chairman of Universities UK, said: "Vice-chancellors pay is a matter for individual universities. But, clearly, universities will wish the salaries of their vice-chancellors to reflect the fact that they are successfully running milti-million pound businesses."

The assistant general secretary of the Association of University Teachers, Sally Hunt, criticised the findings, saying: "Yet again we have seen the fat-cat mentality of university vice-chanceloors triumph over prudent and efficient management."