A UK university has spent almost ?250,000 on its three-year legal battle to prevent the salaries of high-earning professors and senior managers from being published, it has emerged.

°­¾±²Ô²µ¡¯²õ College London ran up the substantial legal bills after its decision not to disclose the salaries and job titles of 125 staff earning ?100,000 or more ¨C as requested via the Freedom of Information Act ¨C was referred to the Information Commissioner¡¯s Office in 2013.

The regulator, which adjudicates on data protection, privacy and freedom of information matters, initially ruled?that °­¾±²Ô²µ¡¯²õ was wrong to refuse the request, citing a ¡°legitimate public interest in transparency and openness¡± given the large amounts of public money that it received.

°­¾±²Ô²µ¡¯²õ successfully overturned the July 2014 ruling later that year after the appeal court judge Anisa Dhanji agreed that there was a ¡°real and significant risk of prejudice to its commercial interests¡± if the information about academic staff was published.

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However, Ms Dhanji did not believe that some professional support staff who earned more than ?100,000 a year should also be exempt from FoI requests.

Salaries for eight staff were eventually released last month, of whom the university¡¯s head of administration and college secretary was the highest paid at between ?180,000 and ?190,000 a year.

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Having to publish such a small subset of salary data marks a victory for the university given that there are now 260 staff at °­¾±²Ô²µ¡¯²õ who are paid more than ?100,000 a year, .

But the total cost of the university¡¯s legal fight to prevent disclosure has run to almost ?250,000, Times Higher Education can reveal.

Figures obtained via an FoI request show that it has paid solicitors Mills & Reeve ?150,307 since the initial request for salary data was made in 2013, while payments to Timothy Pitt-Payne QC came to ?53,175.

Once expenses of ?4,642 and VAT payments on the legal bills are included, the total cost of the legal case totals ?249,750, É«ºÐÖ±²¥ has calculated.

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Although the °­¾±²Ô²µ¡¯²õ appeal against the landmark case means that a US-style system of pay transparency, in which state universities reveal the salaries of all their higher-paid staff, will not proceed, universities will be required to disclose the total cost of their senior management team from next year under more stringent reporting guidelines.

A °­¾±²Ô²µ¡¯²õ spokeswoman said that the university had ¡°pursued the appeal process over the last three years to protect the rights of our staff" and it had been "partially successful¡±.

¡°Vice-chancellors¡¯ salaries are published in the annual financial accounts, and they are aware of this when they accept the position, but it hasn¡¯t been the norm for universities to disclose the salaries of other senior staff,¡± she added, saying that salaries were ¡°personal information and can be commercially sensitive¡±.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com