Head of scandal-hit Imperial College London saw her pay surge by £186,000 last year – the biggest pay rise across all British universities

• Alice Gast’s salary was slammed after being given a bump of £186,000 last year  

The head of Imperial College London pocketed the biggest pay rise across all British universities – despite overseeing a string of scandals.

Alice Gast was given a bump of £186,000 last year, taking her combined salary and benefits from £527,400 to £714,000.

The eye-watering increase emerged in a report published by the Higher Education Statistics Authority, listing the highest paying university executives across Britain.

Professor Gast, who stepped down from the job in July last year, was one of five university heads receiving more than £500,000 in total remuneration in 2021-22, and one of ten receiving more than £400,000.

Alice Gast, pictured, was given a bump of £186,000 last year, taking her combined salary and benefits from £527,400 to £714,000

In 2020, the academic admitted bullying a senior colleague at the university after the higher education regulator launched an investigation

Her salary has been slammed by critics after Professor Gast was at the centre of a bullying investigation and also presided over a number of high-profile failings at the university. 

In 2020, the academic admitted bullying a senior colleague at the university after the higher education regulator launched an investigation.

Imperial academics were also accused of exaggerating the benefits of the Ultra Low Emission Zone at the request of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office.

Reform Party mayoral candidate Howard Fox said: ‘It stinks that the former president of Imperial has wallowed in such a significant pay rise while motorists have been hit so unnecessarily hard in the pocket.’

Imperial academics were also accused of exaggerating the benefits of the Ultra Low Emission Zone at the request of London Mayor Sadiq Khan ’s office

The university also drew criticism for its modelling during the pandemic led by Professor Neil Ferguson. 

Its ‘Report 9’ paper is thought to have been the biggest motivator behind the imposition of a national lockdown in March 2020.

But it subsequently emerged that researchers had based part of the modelling on codes that were more than a decade old, and had themselves raised concerns about ‘data limitations’.

Conservative MP Bob Seely said: ‘I am all for paying big bucks for big successes. But I would not trust anything that comes out of Imperial after their Covid-19 modelling.’

Imperial College London was approached for comment.

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