Overview

• Anant Sudarshan, an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, criticized UK academic salaries, particularly for contractual staff, as uncompetitive and unattractive to top talent.
• Sudarshan noted that some Indian government universities now offer slightly higher salaries in absolute terms for short-term project roles compared to the UK, despite India's lower cost of living.
• He emphasized that while UK salaries remain higher on average, the disparity becomes significant for highly skilled roles when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP).
• The professor's comments sparked a backlash on social media, with some users making anti-immigrant remarks and urging him to hire UK citizens instead of international candidates.
• Sudarshan clarified that the issue is not about citizenship but the universally low pay in UK academia, which he argued affects both citizens and non-citizens equally.