Janet Finch

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Janet Finch

Janet Finch is a noted British sociologist.

She is currently Vice-Chancellor of Keele University in the UK, a position that she has held since 1995. Before that she was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University.

A sociologist by background, she has published extensively on family relationships, social policy and gender.

She was one of the founding members of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences, and in 1999 she was awarded a CBE for services to social science. She is a past Chair of the Executive of the British Sociological Association and a former editor of the journal Sociology.

She has extensive experience of serving as a member or Chair of various national bodies concerned with higher education or research. She currently holds several part-time appointments including as a member of the Executive of UniversitiesUK; Chair of the Equality Challenge in Higher Education; a member of the Council for Science and Technology (the government’s senior advisory body for science); a Trustee of the National Centre for Social Research; and a non-executive member of the Policy Board of the Office for National Statistics.

In February 2007 it was announced that Finch will receive a pay rise of 31.7 per cent: the largest such rise of any vice-chancellor in England in 2007.^[1]

Her Vice-Chancellorship has been controversial, particularly among students and staff at the University, due to the closing of several main courses, particularly modern languages. The building of 'innovation centres' has also attracted controversy, since it is claimed that this diverts capital away from improving facilities and does little to improve the educational value of the University.