The head of Edinburgh University has been revealed to own a plush £1million apartment in London, while living rent-free at the expense of his ‘cash-strapped’ employer.

Sir Peter Mathieson, vice-chancellor and principal at the university, owns the Wimbledon home with his his wife. The flat, which sits in one of the country’s most prestigious postcodes, is understood to be able to fetch around £700 a week in rent during the Wimbledon tennis event.

Mathieson lives in a five-bedroom townhouse in Edinburgh’s Regent Terrace, owned by the university with a price tag of £1.7million. While the university carries out cost-cutting moves, including potential staff cuts, he remains in the property.

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The revelations come after the Daily Record told how Mathieson had racked up £47,000 on luxury overseas junkets in two years. Our investigation also reveals he is a director of five companies alongside his university job and says he still does not know how much he is paid.

Trade unions and politicians have called for Mathieson, who admitted his wages ignorance during a brutal grilling by MSPs last month, to quit. Tory MSP and education committee convener Douglas Ross said: “Staff and students will be outraged to learn Sir Peter has access to another plush residence while refusing to give up his capital home.

“At a time when job cuts are looming large at the university, it is hugely concerning that someone so detached from reality is principal.”

Appearing at a Holyrood committee last month, the principal – who took up the role in 2018 – refused to sell the university’s luxury house to help with the institution’s funding issues. Despite claiming he didn’t know his salary, he said he was “certainly very well paid’, adding that giving up the capital home, which includes all utility bills, maintenance costs and his own driver, wouldn’t make a difference.

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The plan is to cut hundreds of jobs to save £90million instead and save a further £50million from capital budgets. Mathieson said it was up to others to judge if his remuneration was suitable. Asked weeks after appearing in Holyrood whether he had learned what his salary was, the uni boss , 66, said: “I can go and get the documents and show you but I don’t carry the number in my head.”

Uniosn higher education spokesman John Mooney said: “Edinburgh University staff live with the threat of jobs cuts and they worry about whether they can afford a home.

“But the high paid principal gets luxury accommodation rent free despite owning his own home in one of the most sought-after postcodes in the country. When livelihoods are on the line senior managers should lead and do everything they can to save on their luxuries before they cut jobs.”

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Mathieson has also taken on roles in two private companies and holds three directorships in university-associated organisations. Last year he set up a company, Darcy Consulting Edinburgh Limited, with his orthodontist wife. And he took on a third job last month when he joined the board of biotechnology company Roslin Cell Therapies in a role that could net him up to £50,000 a year.

Asked about the five directorships, Mathieson said: “People suggest all sorts of things. But a lot of those roles are part of the job so whoever was principal of the University of Edinburgh would have those roles. I take leave for any work that I do for Roslin Cell Therapies. It’s not a huge time commitment. I do it in my own time.”

A university spokeswoman said the principal’s “personal assets are entirely independent of the university” but didn’t explain why the Wimbledon home hadn’t been declared on his register of interests. She refused to say whether Mathieson earned any income from the property.