How big was your pay rise last year? Statistics show that most of us scored somewhere between non-existent and paltry. Unless, that is, you were the boss of a British university.

Try these figures out for size:

• Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England, saw his overall compensation leap by £52,434 to £314,632.

• Malcolm Grant, the outgoing head of University College London, racked up a £41,077 hike in his salary and pensions to £365,432 – for working three days a week.

• Craig Calhoun at the LSE took a total of £466,000. Of that, £88,000 covered his relocation from the US, but that still leaves him on almost £100,000 more than the previous director.

In the Russell Group, basic pay for bosses jumped by an average ofIndeed, the two groups share behavioural tics.

In good times, they justify mega-pay as the going rate for "talent". In bad times, they just take the cash – Southampton's Don Nutbeam celebrated a 13% plunge in undergraduate recruitment with a £19,015 rise. And as with the City, higher education's new elite now receive repeated pleas from Vince Cable to rein in their excesses. The business secretary and his universities minister, David Willetts, wrote last month: "We are concerned about the substantial upward drift of salaries of some top management. We want to see leaders in the sector exercise much greater restraint." Cable has been singing that refrain since 2010; it always falls on deaf ears.

Forming before our eyes is a new breed of academic fat cat. Except that, with