Dozens of universities have refused to come clean about pay rises for their top chiefs amid union anger over members’ real-terms pay cuts.

The University and College Union condemned “murky” secret pay deals for university chiefs yesterday after just two out of 139 institutions were prepared to say just how much they were paying their top brass.

The sector has seen strikes across Scotland, England and Wales over complaints of inflation outstripping wages year after year, with unions calculating a 13 per cent drop in the real value of their members’ paychecks since 2009.