SENIOR staff at Hereford’s future university can expect to be paid more than £100,000 a year, budget documents reveal.

The university’s top earners would include positions such as the chief executive, chief operating officer, chief academic officer and chief marketing officer.

Other senior officers can expect to earn anything between £50,000 to £80,000 with senior teaching team leaders on £65,000 per year.

The budget and cashflow assumptions document which was presented to cabinet last year details the pay scale for members of the senior leadership team.

Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, the New Model in Technology and Engineering provost and chief academic officer defended the pay structure and said it was vital to attract top international professors.

She said: “As a path finder in global engineering higher-education, NMiTE is competing worldwide for talented individuals that have the courage and foresight to join the team that is establishing a reputation for best in class education innovation.

“Our salary scales are in line with those paid by the UK’s Russell Group of leading universities. That they are appropriate, is confirmed by the fact that NMiTE has so far recruited four of its senior leadership team, two from top British universities and one each from Canada and Australia.

“In addition, recent advertising for teaching staff has generated a global response.”

NMiTE secured some £15m worth of funding for the project from the Department for Education, last year.

The salaries are based on University of Warwick pay scales and analysis of vacancies in the Times Higher Education Supplement and jobs.ac.uk.

The university project is also due to receive further funding of £8million through the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.

Earlier this year Herefordshire Council agreed to be the accountable body for the public funding allocated to the county’s new university during its establishment phase.

Accountable body status means the council will be accountable for funding allocated to the university project by central government.

It will involve receiving money from the government and ensuring the funds are allocated and spent in accordance with any specified conditions.