NEWS - Queen’s Splash £50k on Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge
The Lodge boasts 35 rooms, several acres of garden and two large ornamental lakes
Queen’s University splashed out over £50,000 on the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge last year, according to data exclusively obtained by The Scoop through Freedom of Information requests.
The University employs a gardener, covers cleaning costs and even paid the TV Licence for the 35-room, grace-and-favour mansion at Lennoxvale, off the Malone Road in south Belfast.
Professor Ian Greer lives rent-free in “one of the most desirable of all Vice-Chancellor's residences in the British Isles.”
This is despite the Vice-Chancellor’s remuneration package of over £300,000. This figure is around 10 times higher than the average Northern Ireland salary but is not out of line with other Vice-Chancellor’s salaries.
According to a University document, “The listed three-storey stone-built property, set in its own landscaped gardens, was built between 1873 - 1876.”
Queen’s say that the property was given to the University in 1933 “with the intention that it should be used as the residence of the Vice-Chancellor”, and that the Lodge can be used for other University activities.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Greer and Minister for Health Robin Swann
The University spent £30,848 on gardening, which includes the employment of a gardener. In addition, £6,505 was spent on gas, £5,994 on maintenance costs, and £3,453 on electricity.
A further £3,160 was spent on rates and £1,952 on cleaning, covering 4 hours per week by the in-house cleaning team. The University also paid the £155 TV Licence.
This comes to a total of £52,067.
The Vice-Chancellor is also given access to a University car for work duties.
Students living in University accommodation, meanwhile, pay an average of nearly £500 in rent per month.
Tom, a second-year student who was living in Elms BT9 at the time of these expenses, commented, “The Queen’s accommodation fees meant I often found myself penny-pinching, stuck in a freezing cold flat because the heating was solely controlled by them, struggling to focus on my studies.
To hear the Vice Chancellor’s Residence has a gardening expense of £30,000 and a salary ten times that is utterly incredulous.
Meanwhile, vital University services, like mental health counselling, have been disgustingly underfunded and ignored.”
Grian Ní Dhaimhín, President of the Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union, told The Scoop, "Students, during and before the pandemic, have endured immense inequality. We have seen students and staff come together time and time again to challenge this, and it is imperative that Queen's plays its part in eradicating social and economic inequality.
The University needs to look at how it spends its money and ask itself, is it right that some students are currently having to choose whether to eat or heat their homes, while the university pays for a number of the Vice-Chancellor's living expenses on top of a significant salary?"
The University say they have taken action to address the challenges students are currently facing by offering accommodation rent holidays and a University Hardship Fund.
According to the think-tank, The Taxpayer’s Alliance, these figures would place Queen’s University in fourth place amongst UK universities in terms of total spending on Vice-Chancellor Residences.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge and gardens as seen from above
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Queen’s University ranks twenty-sixth amongst UK universities in terms of income
Joe Ventre from The TaxPayers' Alliance said, "Queen's students holed up at home are bound to feel ripped off by the luxuries lavished on their Vice-Chancellor's grand residence.
"The University must do the right thing and put an immediate end to these all-expenses-paid pads."
The Scoop also recently revealed spending of nearly £40,000 by Ulster University on their Vice-Chancellor’s Residence of Knocktarna House.
Notwithstanding its modest title, the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge boasts 35 rooms, several acres of garden and two large ornamental lakes. One former Vice-Chancellor, Eric Ashby, “would invigorate himself for a day's Vice-Chancellorial labours with an early-morning swim.”
The Lodge, formerly known as Lennoxvale House, was donated to the University by Sir William Whitla after his death in 1933.
The Lodge dates back to the late 19th century
The extensive garden also features a half-timbered coach-house, a two-storey garden house and a red brick boat house. The Lodge has also been “extensively refurbished in recent years.”
A spokesperson for the University told The Scoop, “'The Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge was bequeathed to the University with the intention that it should be used as the residence of the Vice-Chancellor. The property can also be used to host official University events and activities.
The bulk of the costs relate to maintaining the property appropriately, as with all other facilities across the University estate, which includes significant employer costs.
The University recognises that students are facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic and has taken steps to address these challenges, including the pausing of accommodation contracts and enhanced support available via the University Hardship Fund.”
Thomas Copeland, Head of News