University of Texas chancellor, Mark G. Yudof, was appointed as University of California’s new president on Thursday as the university’s Board of Regents approved the decision by voting for him unanimously.

Yudof will earn $591,084 per year, more than his predecessor Robert Dynes, who was being paid $405,000 per year. However, Yudof will actually earn a total sum of about $828,000 per year with retirement and other benefits.

When asked about the high amount of money Yudof will be paid by the UC, Richard Blum, chairman of the university board, acknowledged that he’s expensive, but “he’s worth it”. The high compensation package the university will pay Yudof triggered protests from some students and employees.

"One of the problems the university has had is we need to step up and be competitive," Blum added.

Yudof will begin his tenure as the University of California’s president in September. The other candidates for the job were internal, but Blum said the board decided to hire some “new eyes” to manage the institution because the University needs an institutional change and, for someone within, this is a hard thing to do right.

Yudof will face tough tasks as he will have to reduce administrative costs and put an end to the trend of student-fee hikes.

"He needs to raise the money to pay for himself," said UC-San Francisco graduate student Alex Greninger.

The 220,000-student, 10-campus UC is quite similar to Yudof’s current employer, the 194,000-student University of Texas when it comes to the institutional system.

However, when it comes to research, UC clearly has the edge and also its $18 billion annual budget is larger than the Texas system's $10.7 billion budget. Both institutions tried to attract more Latino students but had limited success.