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Re:Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize by chrisseaton on Friday September 11, 2020 @08:25AM (#24441928)
> I imagine that a knighted professor at Imperial can comfortably access a mortgage in London

You don't get paid for being knighted. And these universities have a mostly fixed pay scale it's not like Google where you can just demand whatever you want if you're good enough.

Re:Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize by p-a_58213 on Friday September 11, 2020 @08:49AM (#24442177)
Well, there does exist a fixed pay scale for base salaries, but for senior academic grades in many occasions this simply defines the minimum salary, and the rest is negotiable (particularly if the academic has a good record of obtaining research grants).

Then again, there exist Business Schools, where due to the different funding model (most income comes from MBAs, as opposed to research grant overheads, and undergraduate tuition fees), full professors can easily make near-£200k in base salary.

Re:Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize by angio on Friday September 11, 2020 @10:22AM (#24443149)
Even with a salary of 200k per year, it's unlikely they will be able to afford a 2 or 3 bedroom flat in South Kensington. According to Zoopla/Foxtons, the average price is around 2M.
Re:Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize by throwaway2245 on Friday September 11, 2020 @08:55AM (#24442223)
Senior professors negotiate their pay.
Re:Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize by chrisseaton on Friday September 11, 2020 @09:00AM (#24442276)
I don't know what you think that looks like in practice... but it's going to be very very modest at a British public university.