A 'DISGUSTING number' of Oxford University institutions have signed up to pay their staff the city council-led Living Wage, the authority's leader has said.

None of the university's colleges have signed up to pay the Oxford Living Wage (OLW), which is now paid at a rate of £10.02 an hour.

Of all its colleges and permanent private halls, just Blackfriars and Campion Hall have signed up to pay the rate, according to the council.

Susan Brown said the lack of take-up by the university as a whole had been 'shocking' and that she would be writing to some of the wealthiest colleges to ask whether they could pay the OLW to their lowest-earning staff.

The city council has been promoting the OLW for 11 years.

Mary Clarkson, executive board member for culture and the city centre, said she was 'ashamed' of the Oxford college she attended, St John's. That is regarded as one of the university's wealthiest.

She wrote: "I’m ashamed of my old college, St John's. Next time they ask me for donations, I’ll tell them they’ll get no money from me until they pay the Oxford Living Wage."

The Living Wage Foundation said 17 Oxford colleges and Oxford University pay its rate of £9 per hour. St John's College is not one of those. St Peter's, Mansfield and University are three colleges that do.