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Scottish education minister Brian Wilson has condemned university principals' big pay rises as setting a bad example to other staff. In a letter to fellow minister George Foulkes, Mr Wilson said: "I therefore share your concern that university principals were awarded rises last year averaging 8.7 per cent with some in double figures ... It does not set a good example to other staff funded largely from the public purse.

" In a recent THES pay league, Edinburgh and Glasgow Caledonian universities topped Scotland's 21 higher education institutions, paying their principals Pounds 130,000. This was an 8.3 per cent rise for Edinburgh's Sir Stewart Sutherland, but a 2.5 per cent drop at GCU, whose principal, Stan Mason, was fired for gross misconduct.