Alice Gast, who starts at Imperial in September, was paid total remuneration of $1,162,598 (£679,754) in 2011 in her current job as president of Lehigh University in the US.

Her total pay and pension package at Imperial, which includes a £16,000 estimate of the “taxable benefit” from living in a college-owned apartment in West London, although not the cost of the accommodation itself, falls some way short of that.

However, Professor Gast’s 2014-15 Imperial package amounts to a 28 per cent increase on the £330,000 awarded to her Imperial predecessor, Sir Keith O’Nions, in 2012-13 (the most recent figures available).

Her 2014-15 package would have made her the third highest-paid vice-chancellor in the UK in 2012-13, behind only Craig Calhoun of the London School of Economics and Andrew Hamilton of the University of Oxford.

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But she may be pushed down the pecking order by the time the 2014-15 table becomes clear, as vice-chancellors’ salaries are likely to have continued their healthy rates of growth.

Imperial has published details of Professor Gast’s pay .

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An Imperial spokesman said: “Professor Gast has advised that her preference would be to make details of her emoluments available sooner than December 2015, which is when information about her first year at Imperial would otherwise first be published, in the College’s annual accounts for 2014-15.”

According to the Imperial website, Professor Gast’s £421,000 package breaks down into £349,138 of “remuneration”, “£16,000 (approx.)” under “other”, and an employer’s pension contribution of £55,862.

“Other” is described as “the estimate of the taxable benefit which the President will be assessed as receiving by living on campus in an apartment within 170 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, a historic building that is used by the College for a range of official ceremonial and meeting functions. It is a requirement of the position that the President lives on campus.”

Imperial’s spokesman said: “In line with HMRC rules the accommodation itself is not a taxable benefit when it is necessary for the employee to live there to be able to do their work properly.”

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He added: “The £16,000 refers to accommodation-related costs which are taxable benefits, such as utility services and the provision of furniture.”

john.morgan@tsleducation.com