Vice-Chancellor of Bath University Dame Glynis Breakwell to retire

Dame Glynis Breakwell will step down at the end of the current academic year. Credit: PA Images

The Vice-Chancellor and President of Bath University has bowed to mounting pressure over her pay and perks package and is to step down.

She will no longer be the Vice-Chancellor at the end of this academic year, in August 2018. After a sabbatical, she will then retire from her role at the University in February 2019. As of August next year she will stop living in her rent-free five-bedroom apartment on Bath's famous Lansdown Crescent.

Dame Glynis Breakwell critics have been lining up both inside and outside the university's walls. She is by far the UK's highest paid Vice-Chancellor, earning £468,000 a year, three times more than the Prime Minister.

Then came the recent revelation of a £17,500 pay rise, more than some junior university employees earn in an entire year.

Bath University's Vice-Chancellor will retire in 2019. Credit: University of Bath

She's been Bath's figurehead since 2001 during which time she was handed a 25% pay rise in just one year, at a time when other members of staff received just 0.5%.

Since Dame Breakwell's arrival, the number of staff paid more than £100,000 a year has jumped from two to more than 50.

Bath's Student Union called a referendum on their VC, the result of which was due later this week. But many of the students' calls for her to go have now been answered.