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As staff at Scotland’s largest university continue strikes over sweeping cuts, their boss still won’t say what his second job pays on top of his £425,000 salary.
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The boss of Edinburgh university is facing fresh calls to disclose his additional earnings after a company where he is a director paid its board of 8 people more than £600,000 last year.
The university’s principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, joined the board of Roslin Cell Therapies (CT) in June 2024, months before announcing sweeping cuts at Edinburgh.
Mathieson, who receives a £425,000 pay package from the university, has declared the directorship as a remunerated role. But he has still not said how much he is paid, despite repeated questions from The Ferret.
Roslin CT’s latest accounts were published on 16 September – the day before Edinburgh university staff announced five weeks of strikes over £140m of cuts. Unions say 1,800 jobs could be lost with 90 degree programmes also facing closure.
The financial report revealed eight board members at Roslin CT were paid a combined £610,000 last year. Some also held share options, which let them buy shares at a set price and could earn them money if their value rises. The accounts do not specify Mathieson’s share of this total sum.
Paul Dobson
Roslin CT grew out of the university’s Roslin Institute, where Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1996. Edinburgh university held a stake in the company until it was sold to private investors for £38m in January 2022, while Mathieson was the principal.
The Ferret first revealed his second job in March 2025, weeks after Mathieson announced the £140m of proposed “savings” at the university – £90m of which would be made up through reductions in the wage bill.
Staff at the time described it as a “slap in the face” to colleagues facing redundancy.
Earlier this month Mathieson announced he would leave as principal in early 2028, but he assured the university court the role would be given his “full attention” until his final day.
Marion Lieutaud and Courtney Stafford-Walter, vice presidents of the Edinburgh branch of the University and College Union (UCU), said Mathieson’s “refusal to disclose how much his extra job had earned him is in line with his general approach to leadership and management: secretive and unaccountable”.
Paul Dobson
They claimed it was “shocking and profoundly disrespectful” that his “self-allocated mission of slashing jobs and learning conditions is only one of his jobs”.
“Many of us have to work multiple jobs outside the university, but that is because we aren’t paid enough to make rent otherwise,” they claimed in a statement to The Ferret.
Lieutaud and Stafford-Walter continued: “He accepted multiple pay rises even as he was telling workers and students that the university could not afford them, their programmes or their course options. One has to ask: if £425,000 a year is not enough for him, what is?”
UCU members are now in their fifth week of strikes, which are due to end on 30 October. The union blames Edinburgh’s financial pressures on spending on major projects such as buildings, and has called for those budgets to be cut before jobs and courses.
The university has faced accusations of “academic vandalism” for targeting courses in the arts and humanities for closure. This includes programmes at the Edinburgh College of Art such as textiles, jewellery and performance costume which have been described as a “unique and irreplaceable part” of the city’s “cultural history”.
“Many of us have to work multiple jobs outside the university, but that is because we aren’t paid enough to make rent otherwise.” — Marion Lieutaud and Courtney Stafford-Walter, UCU
Mathieson has claimed the university is making “tough decisions” which are required to “restore our university to financial sustainability and resilience”. He has previously said he takes leave for any work he does with Roslin CT and that it is “not a huge time commitment”.
In previous responses to The Ferret the university has said any payments from Roslin CT are a “matter for the company”.
Its latest response again did not disclose his earnings. A spokesperson for the university said Roslin CT brings “life-saving therapies to patients worldwide” and Mathieson’s “support of this effort is done entirely in his own time”.
They added: “As principal and vice chancellor of a high-profile institution, professor Mathieson is ultimately responsible for one of the largest universities in the UK.
“The salary of the principal, as the university’s most senior leader, is determined by a remuneration committee, of which he is not a member. It takes into account the scale of responsibilities and competitive nature of recruitment in this area.”
We have contacted Roslin CT for comment.
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