A UNION official has criticised a college principal's high salary as out of proportion.

A survey published in the Times Educational Supplement ranks Ian Prescott, principal of the recently-amalgamated East Durham and Houghall College, the 14th highest paid out of 442 college principals in Britain.

Mr Prescott's wage, £104,262, makes him the best paid principal in the North-East, with his closest rival, Newcastle College's Jackie Fisher, 36th, on £95,746.

John Gilmore, delegate to the Northern Regional Council of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe), said Mr Prescott's wage was disproportionate.

He said: "They are closing down departments and recruiting boxing and football coaches and there's evidence of an exodus of students, yet Mr Prescott is on a salary you would expect at Newcastle University."

In the early 1990s, governing bodies, which used to determine principals' salaries, were replaced by corporations.

Mr Gilmore said that while the secretary of state is supposed to oversee their membership, there was too little control over who joins.

A spokesman for East Durham and Houghall College said that the figure quoted in the Times covers 14 months' salary as well as one-off pension payments, and highlighted the college's rapid expansion to cater for 30,000 students.

He said: "Mr Prescott has done an extremely valuable job since he came to the college seven years ago, and turned it around from an organisation with low student numbers and a considerable financial deficit, and the board has obviously recognised that."