University of Bath pays £16,000 for oil painting of UK’s highest-paid vice chancellor

Union president says portrait is ‘an insult to students’

Dame Glynis Breakwell resigned as vice chancellor following outrage at her £470,000 a year pay package (Russell Sach)

A university has angered students by spending more than £16,000 on a portrait of Britain’s highest-paid vice chancellor.

The University of Bath paid £16,388.46 for a painting of Dame Glynis Breakwell, who recently resigned amid controversy over her £470,000 a year pay package.

The oil painting and an accompanying plaque have since been removed and have not been seen publicly since, according to student magazine Bath Time.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the unveiling ceremony cost the university an additional £750 and the plaque that accompanied the painting cost £462.

The president of Bath’s student union told The Tab the figure was “an insult to students” amid campaigns on campus for better mental-health services and bursary support.

Dame Breakwell formally resigned on 28 February, according to The Tab, after facing criticism in 2017 over the size of her salary, which included a five-bedroom townhouse in Lansdown Crescent, Bath.

The former vice chancellor faced further criticism when it was revealed she had claimed dozens of first class train tickets and a number of first class flights on expenses.

It was also revealed she had put £2 on expenses for a packet of biscuits, despite her six-figure salary.

Dame Breakwell’s painting was unveiled by the Earl of Wessex, who is the university’s chancellor, at a ceremony on 25 February.

Eve Alcock, president of Bath’s student union, told The Tab: “In a climate where we’re always lobbying for more money for mental-health and wellbeing initiatives or bursaries and financial support, this news comes as a huge insult to students.

“It highlights just how much governance reform was needed as this was signed off between a small group of people with no check or balance. When you start to think about what sorts of things £16,000 could pay for to benefit students and their university experience, it is extremely frustrating that the money was used on this.”

Merry Chamen, a Bath student and chair of the Bath Music Society, said Dame Breakwell had been “an outrageous waste of university money”.

“It seems, with painful irony, that they have ‘honoured’ her in much the same way,” she added.

In a response to Bath Time, a University of Bath spokesperson said: “Portraits have been commissioned for all previous vice chancellors, including the most recent, to mark their contribution to the university.

“A procurement process for the painting was conducted and authorised by the University secretary and previous chair of council.”

Agencies contributed to this report