![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JS142440952j.jpg\")
University of Edinburgh vice-\u00adchancellor and principal Sir Peter Mathieson racked up \u00a342,456 on flights to destinations including South Africa, South Korea, the US and Hong Kong between March 2022 and May last year.<\/p>\nWe can reveal Peter Mathieson \u2013 who earned \u00a3421,667 last year according to the uni\u2019s latest accounts \u2013 has racked up thousands on business class travel.University of Edinburgh vice-\u00adchancellor and principal Sir Peter Mathieson racked up \u00a342,456 on flights to destinations including South Africa, South Korea, the US and Hong Kong between March 2022 and May last year.<\/p>\n
A fatcat <\/a>uni boss who told MSPs he didn\u2019t know his own \u00a3421,667 pay spent \u00a347,000 on luxury foreign junkets in just two years, we can reveal.<\/p>\n University of Edinburgh vice-\u00adchancellor and principal Sir Peter Mathieson racked up \u00a342,456 on business class flights to destinations including South Africa, South Korea, the US and Hong Kong between March 2022 and May last year.<\/p>\n Our investigation uncovered \u00a33059 spent on accommodation, and \u00a31336 on transport in Milan, London, Texas, Brussels, Warsaw and Hong Kong from September 2023 to last July.<\/p>\n It comes as his lecturers are set to walk out in a dispute<\/a> over a refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies as part of plans to save \u00a3140million.<\/p>\n The principal, who took the role in 2018 appeared at a Holyrood committee last week and claimed he didn\u2019t know how much he earned.<\/p>\n Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Miles Briggs said: \u201cWhen Sir Peter plans to cut many hundreds, and possibly more than a thousand, jobs at the University of Edinburgh, people will be surprised that there is still the budget for trips of this sort.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational travel to promote the university may be reasonable, but it\u2019s difficult to see why it should cost tens of thousands of pounds while swingeing cuts are being made elsewhere and so many jobs could be under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n Unison\u2019s lead for universities, John Mooney said: \u201cPeople are appalled by the behaviour of Scotland\u2019s university top brass. Especially when the sector is in serious debt and hard-working staff are losing their jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cChancellors and principals get paid eye-watering salaries well beyond anything their students and staff could dream of.<\/p>\n \u201cI can assure you ordinary university staff don\u2019t have the luxury of not knowing what their salaries are.\u201d<\/p>\n We can reveal Mathieson \u2013 who earned \u00a3421,667 last year according to the uni\u2019s latest accounts \u2013 has racked up thousands on business class travel.<\/p>\n A total of \u00a38458 was spent on return \u00adbusiness flights from Heathrow to South \u00adAfrica\u2019s OR Tambo airport to visit the University of the Wit\u00ad-waters\u00adrand in recog\u00adnition of the importance of \u201cpartners from the global south being in attendance\u201d at a COP27 summit in May 2022.<\/p>\n Expenses<\/a> also included return flights from \u00adEdinburgh to South Korea which cost \u00a38818 in May 2024. That was for a symposium aimed at fostering UK-Korea \u00adpartnerships.<\/p>\n He also claimed \u00a34127 for return business class flights from \u00adEdinburgh to Washington in March 2022 and New Jersey in November 2023. And \u00a34946 was spent to fly to Hong Kong in April last year.<\/p>\n Holyrood committee convener Douglas Ross told Mathieson his reported six-figure package was more than the combined wages of First Minister John Swinney and PM Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n Mathieson said: \u201cThe figure that is often quoted in the press is \u00adsomething around \u00a3400,000 a year but I don\u2019t scrutinise my slip so I don\u2019t know the exact figure.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s quite as high as that but I\u2019m certainly very well paid.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d need to get my P60 out to show it to you but I don\u2019t carry that figure around in my head but I\u2019m very well paid.\u201d .<\/p>\n He also confirmed he was given a five per cent pay rise last year and a 2.5 per cent increase this January<\/p>\n When Ross asked if, given the cuts, a reduction in his salary would be beneficial, Mathieson said: \u201cI\u2019ve made the point in the discussions about senior team pay that you could pay the senior team of Edinburgh university nothing and it would make almost no difference to the size of the expenditure \u00adchallenge we face.\u201d<\/p>\n The expense figures were obtained by the Sunday Mail under Freedom of \u00adInformation laws.<\/p>\n Prior to March 2022, the university\u2019s travel management partner was Key Travel and as a result, in the 2021\/22 financial year, the university does not hold details on flight class or destination. From August 1 2021 to February 28. 2022, the university holds only the year of the transaction, cost, and travel type.<\/p>\n Members of the University and College Union will strike on June 20, with a five-day walkout in September.<\/p>\n Mooney said: \u201cIt\u2019s highly paid bosses\u2019 incompetence that got us into this mess but it\u2019s lower paid staff who pay the cost with their jobs and low pay. Our education system is too important for Scotland\u2019s skills, jobs and economy, we need to hold these people accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n The University of Edinburgh said: \u201cEach of these visits represent milestones for important projects and partnerships, many being the \u00adculmination of years of work by academics and professional staff from across the university.\u201d<\/p>\n It said its global profile is something it is \u201chugely proud of\u201d and added: \u201cAs the University\u2019s most senior leader, the principal\u2019s presence at such events is vital for building relationships, encouraging investment and underlining our ongoing commitment to work with partners in delivering positive change worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.<\/p>\n You’ll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.<\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JS220182672.jpg\")
Professor Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JS236390655.jpg\")
Gangnam City Seoul, South Korea<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JS305631422.jpg\")
Johannesburg city centre in South Africa.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_WACOMMUNITYQR3.jpg\")
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!<\/p>\n