Since 1982, academic salaries in the pre-1992 universities have risen 5 per cent in real terms, as against 27 per cent in the public sector, and 44 per cent in average earnings. The City, law and accountancy are now enormously more lucrative. I think it's seriously damaging to the quality of life in the UK', says Budd. Those days are long gone. Under the current pressures from the market and years of cuts, Oxford has been steadily making exceptions to its tradition of 'collegiality'.
Outstanding lecturers can move several points up the pay scale to ensure recruitment or retention.
In the early 1990s there were annual promotions exercises, using government funds provided for the purpose, to reward lecturers with readerships and readers with professorships. And Oxford's college system injects some quite wide disparities into a 'common' pay scale. Congregation recently debated a proposal that the University should have the discretion to pay 'additional emoluments' above the standard pay scales to holders of any academic post, not just professors. This was not just to head off the poachers from other UK universities, but to help with recruitment and, importantly, to reward excellence regardless of whether or not there was another tempting offer on the table. This apparently modest proposal was extensively debated.