Former principal of UHI paid an average of £21k per month
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Details of Professor Todd Walker’s remuneration were revealed in a freedom of information request.
Professor Todd Walker, who served as principal and vice-chancellor of UHI between February 2021 and September this year, received a total of £401,257 in gross pay for the 19 months he was in charge.
The information was released just days after several members of the university board left amid a shake-up aimed at saving the institution £450,000 per year.
If he had worked every day of the year, including weekends and holidays, he would have been on £676 per day.
The Australian academic took up the Highland posting while Covid restrictions were in place, meaning he spent six months working from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, before he was able to make the move to Scotland.
Heading up a partnership of 12 colleges, including Inverness UHI, he said his focus would be to make sure courses were aligned to growth in the local economy.
When he departed he said he was leaving for “family and professional reasons.”
On top of his gross annual £210,000 wage, Prof Walker received £69,129 in pension contributions and a further £20,186 in relocation fees. There were no penalties for leaving earlier than expected.
Including expenses, Prof Walker received £518,256 in the time he was employed by UHI.
A spokeswoman for the university said: “The salary offered for our principal and vice-chancellor post is benchmarked against similar posts in the higher education sector in Scotland. Our principal is responsible for the performance of our large and complex partnership, particularly in improving quality and outcomes for students. During his time in post, Prof Walker worked with colleagues to guide UHI through the pandemic, achieve strong satisfaction ratings in national student surveys and have nearly three quarters of our research rated as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.”
Prof Walker was asked to comment.
