MANCHESTER University's head is one of the best-paid principals in the country, new figures have revealed.

Alan Gilbert was paid £260,000 last year - more than Oxford and Cambridge principals - with a pension contribution of £34,000. His university will have cut around 600 jobs by the end of this year to clear a £30m debt.



University officials refused to comment on Prof Gilbert's salary, which rose by four per cent last year.

But other higher education institutions have defended the salary levels as the `going rate' in higher education, arguing they are comparable with hospital bosses and council chief executives.

Michael Harloe, head of Salford University, got £218,000 - up 15 per cent on last year. John Brooks, principal of Manchester Metropolitan University, received a salary of £205,000. George Holmes, principal of Bolton University, received £149,900.

The highest paid principal was Sir Richard Sykes from Imperial College London, whose salary last year was £348,000.

The average pay for a Manchester University lecturer was £37,745.