The "hypocrisy" of huge pay rises for university bosses behind a fifth annual below-inflation offer for workers will galvanise support for strikes, academics union UCU said yesterday.

Vice-chancellors of 19 of Britain's elite Russell Group universities saw their salaries leap by £22,000 to £293,000 on average last year, according to a Times Higher Education study.

Their pool was even bigger when pensions were added, leaving the fat cats lapping up £318,500 compared to £302,500 in 2011-12.