Friday 23 January 2015

Bath Spa Vice Chancellor's Day


Students at Bath Spa University celebrated their Vice Chancellor's Day in front of the Main House at the University today. Today, Vice Chancellor Christina Slade earned as much as the lowest paid worker in the university earns in a year.

Bath Students Against Fees and Cuts organised the party to highlight the pay gap between the Vice Chancellor and other workers at the university. In 2012-2013, Christina took a 6.4% pay rise, taking a new salary of £216,000 when other staff were offered a 1% pay rise.

The Vice Chancellor was unfortunately unable to attend her party as she was on a business trip to Washington at the time. "Probably staying in a 5 star hotel", said one student.

Cody, a student at Bath Spa University told us "It's gone very sucessfully. The samba is about to start to properly catch the attention of students and staff in order to highlight the important issue of pay disparity in the university."

                                                 Video of of the Bath Spa VC Day



The students brought cakes, bubbles, sparklers, party poppers, champagne and an 11-piece samba band to the party, which went on for nearly 3 hours, during which many students and staff members came over to join in the fun.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Neil Sammells, passed by the party and was invited to join in instead of the Vice Chancellor. He told students "I probably shouldn't."


Bath Students Against Fees and Cuts brought the idea of VC Days to the attention of students across the country in December at the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts conference, and other universities have been engaging in similar actions of their respective VC Days.

Bath Students Against Fees and Cuts will be holding another VC Day at the University of Bath at 12 noon on 2nd February, which will mark the date on which the Vice Chancellor will have earned twice as much as the lowest paid worker at the university.


There will also be a #FreeEducation march on Saturday 31st January, starting at Bath Abbey at 12 noon.


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