Winchester University’s Vice Chancellor Joy Carter (pictured left) is one of the lowest paid university bosses in the country, according to a report published today in a national newspaper.

Professor Carter who is a chartered geologist, was appointed as the University’s Vice Chancellor in 2006. She earns £186,000 a year before tax according to the report. The Vice Chancellor also gets a pension as part of her employment package.

The report - published in The Guardian newspaper - shows that only around twenty universities in the UK have lower earning Vice Chancellors than the University Of Winchester.

Professor Carter pockets £3,000 a year more than the Vice Chancellor of Chichester University – often seen as a local rival – but less than her opposite number at Southampton Solent University who takes home a whacking £218,000 a year.

But the really eye-watering salaries are to be found at the older established universities in London and beyond. The highest paying university college is the London Business School which pays out £474,000 a year to its most senior manager.

Other than the Vice Chancellor, the University of Winchester has no other staff on more than £100,000 a year.

In comparison the University College London has 311 staff on more than £100,000 a year and Oxford University – which claims to be one of the best universities in the country - has 238. The report also suggests that around 80 heads of universities in the UK now earn more than the Prime Minister.

Joy Carter declined to give us a statement on the report.