'They should show solidarity with staff'

* "I think staff here at Leeds Metropolitan will be surprised by this and will want to start asking questions. At the very least there is a question of fairness to be answered. Academic salaries have been depressed for as long as anyone here can remember."

Senior lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University reacting to its vice-chancellor's Pounds 139,000 salary. Seven staff at the university were paid more than Pounds 50,000, but none earned more than Pounds 100,000.

* "I don't resent anyone in academia getting a fat pay increase - I just wish we all got one. For over 20 years, half a working lifetime, lecturers' salaries have only just held against inflation. There has been no extra money from the increased public wealth."

Tim Searle of the University of Sheffield.

* "The big problem is that vice-chancellors nationally have their pay set in ways that are less transparent than other members of staff."

Member of staff at the University of Bath, where the vice-chancellor received an 8.9 per cent pay rise, taking his salary to Pounds 147,000.

* "We are going through hard times financially, and it seems strange that lecturers at Bradford could be asked to forgo their discretionary awards when we believe that the senior management will get theirs."

Adrian Pearce of the University of Bradford, where the vice-chancellor's 3.2 per cent pay rise took his salary to Pounds 128,000.

* "The increase that our vice-chancellor has taken has always been greater than inflation and then his managers tell us that our expectations are unrealistic. The vice-chancellor should show some solidarity with the staff that he professes to admire. What does it do to the morale of staff when they see their vice-chancellor being awarded a big increase on an already large salary?" Sandi Golbey of the University of Nottingham, where a 10.4 per cent pay rise took the vice-chancellor's salary to Pounds 1,000.

* "I have heard Derek Roberts say on numerous occasions he feels strongly that the pay of academics is ridiculously low and that it is not down to individual universities - we need government funding to redress the situation. When he first came to University College London one of my colleagues was brazen enough to ask him about his pay and he said that he had taken a substantial pay cut on coming to UCL from GEC."

Helen Donoghue of University College London responding to news of provost Sir Derek Roberts's Pounds 146,194 salary.