Performance bonuses for UKeU directors

UKeU's directors received performance-related bonuses of more than £100,000 while the government's online learning scheme failed to reconcile high expenditure with student take-up.

Computing has learned that basic salaries for UkeU executive directors in 2002/3 totalled £428,625. But performance-related bonuses amounted to £101,770, or 23.7 per cent of executive directors' basic wages.

Of UKeU's 75 workers, 31 were eligible for bonuses of between 10 and 50 per cent.

UKeU will be wound down in the next few weeks after spending £50m of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), but attracting just 900 students.

Hefce chairman David Young told an Education and Skills Committee inquiry into UkeU last week that the bonus scheme was not what he would have chosen to put into place.

'The performance-related targets are rather loose,' he said. 'The bonuses had to be paid on legal advice and are rather unusual.'

Hefce chief executive Sir Howard Newby told MPs he was unaware of the bonus scheme and he was not 'comfortable' with it.

UKeU had a director-led remuneration committee that made recommendations to its board for executive pay.