COMMENTING on today's reports that university vice chancellors in Wales are to receive pay rises of up to 13.6%, Shadow Education Minister Paul Davies AM said:

"It does not seem sensible to give vice chancellors these sorts of pay increases in the current economic climate or with the funding gap between Welsh and English universities running into tens of millions of pounds.

"The timing of this announcement could not have been worse. Students in Wales learned yesterday that they are going to have to pay thousands more for their studies.

"A day later they learned that the people running universities in Wales are to benefit from bumper pay deals.

"While we accept vice chancellors play an important role in higher education in Wales – and we need to attract the highest calibre candidates for the job – this announcement sends out all the wrong messages."