THE head of a new higher education watchdog promised yesterday that it would clamp down on excessive pay for university vice-chancellors.

Sir Michael Barber, who will become chairman of the Office for Students when it comes into being next year, pledged to expose bumper pay packets for senior university staff that were much higher than the institution’s average.

Mr Barber told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are some vice-chancellors’ pay packets that look out of kilter with the performance of their institutions, their contribution. We will certainly bear down on in a variety of ways.

“And one of the particular things we will do is look at the ratio between the vice-chancellor’s pay and the average pay of the staff in an institution.

“And that will make very visible where certain pay packets stand out like a sore thumb.”

However, he said the Office for Students would not interfere with universities setting their own pay rates, claiming ludicrously that the best form of regulation is self-regulation.

“See among yourselves where the pay packets stand out and see whether you should reduce them,” Mr Barber proposed.

Bath University’s Dame Glynis Breakwell is Britain’s highest-paid vice-chancellor, taking home £451,000 in 2015-16, including benefits.