It has been revealed that GCU Vice-Chancellor, Pamela Gillies, in the space of a year racked up a bill of over £27,000 on hotels in expenses.

The report from University and College Union outlines that in as little as three days GCU Vice-Chancellor had the university pay almost £3,000 on a five-star hotel, mini-bar, limousine and laundry services whilst she stayed in New York. In total, Mrs Gillies has spent over £15,000 in the last year on trips to New York.

Most of these outrageous costs came from trips to work on GCU’s New York offshoot – which after two years and a cost of over five million pounds still has no students and no teaching licence.

When asked to respond, a university spokesman said:

Glasgow Caledonian University is one of Scotland’s most cost-effective higher education institutions. It is returning over £13 to the Scottish economy for every £1 it receives in public funding and supporting 12,500 jobs in Scotland.”

Vice-Chancellor Gillies, who received a CBE in 2012 for “services to education” and earns over two hundred-thousand pounds a year, launched the 2020 strategy earlier this which aims to deliver the ‘common good’ for GCU staff and students.

Aiming to bring the values of “Integrity, Creativity, Responsibility and Confidence” to the campuses in Glasgow, London and New York; many are now asking if this strategy is actually providing benefits to the staff and, more importantly, the students of Glasgow Caledonian University.