UNIVERSITIES Minister Jo Johnson said yesterday he would tell higher education bosses to show “restraint” in setting the pay of senior staff, amid a public outcry at the staggering sums received by some vice-chancellors.

Mr Johnson pledged that new regulator the Office for Students (OfS) would ensure greater accountability in how financial packages for vice-chancellors are set in future.

However, he said he was uncomfortable with what he called the “hounding” of individual vice-chancellors over their pay, insisting that he wanted to tackle the problem on a “structural level” instead.