Our vice chancellor David Eastwood sat on the board when the decision was made to scrap the cap on tuition fees, allowing universities to charge as much as they like. Because of huge cuts in higher education many courses, particularly arts subject will rely almost entirely on student fees. And yet the number of staff paid over £100,000 at the University of Birmingham has gone from 28 to 96. In terms total pay to there has been average increases of 19.9% each year since 2000 for the top university staff. The VC wages have also increasing staggeringly from £169000 to £342000 in same period. Both of these increases are vastly out of proportion with the growth of the university in the same period (6.6% per annum) and increases in the average staff member’s wages 4.55% per year. The Vice chancellor charges the cost of a chauffeur to the uni (despite living less than 1km away from the university) a cleaner and gardener despite earning more than 13 times than average UK salary. Austerity needs to be practiced at the top not the bottom and David Eastwood our VC should to take a strong line against fees, rather than lobbying for it.