Dons at New College, Oxford, are to receive £30,000 each from the proceeds of a £55 million land deal.
The payment, described by the college bursar as "the jam on the college scone", comes from the sale of land in Buckinghamshire donated to the college in 1386 by the Bishop of Winchester. The proceeds will make it the sixth wealthiest Oxford college, with assets of £125 million.
A third of the money will go on pay, a third on repairing the roof of the 14th century building and the rest for "academic development" including bursaries. The decision to use some of the proceeds of the sale of a charitable bequest to fund salaries has appalled some members of the university. "The college exists for charitable purposes. It shouldn't think of itself as a company giving out a dividend," one don told today's Times Higher Education Supplement.
But David Palfreyman, the college bursar, said academics were the college's most precious resource. The 39 senior academics will receive £10,000 a year for three years and junior fellows will get £2,500. "We are dealing locally with the decline in academic pay over the last 20 years which is acknowledged by the unions, the employers and the Government," he said.