| Dame Janet Finch | |
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Janet Finch speaking at Keele University Students' Union, November 2003. |
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| Born | Janet Valerie Finch 13 February 1946 |
| Residence | United Kingdom |
Dame Janet Valerie Finch DBE, DL, AcSS (born 13 February 1946) is a British sociologist and academic administrator. She was Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Social Relations at Keele University,[1] and has held a number of other public appointments in the UK. She currently holds an honorary position at the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life, based in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester.[2]
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Finch has published extensively on family relationships, her research interests focusing especially on inter-generational family relationships. In September 1995, Finch was appointed Vice-Chancellor at Keele University, having previously been a Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Lancaster University.[1] At Keele, she has overseen substantial alterations of the University and the increasing development of a private Science and Business Park.
She attracted controversy[3][4] in February 2007, when it was announced that she would receive a pay rise of 31.7 per cent: the largest such rise of any Vice-Chancellor in England that year.[5] In a statement given to the THES, the University responded that the salary awarded would be frozen for a three-year term, and was awarded following comparisons with other institutions, and taking into account Finch's "outstanding performance during a period of cultural and procedural change and development".[6] She retired from her position in 2010, having served fifteen years as Keele's Vice-Chancellor. She returned the following year to be made a Doctor of Letters.[7]
Finch is one of four main panel chairs in the Research Excellence Framework,[8] independent co-chair of the Council for Science and Technology, a non-executive director of the Identity and Passport Service and the chair of the Council of Ombudsman Service Ltd.
In 2011 the government selected Finch to be the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, but during a pre-appointment hearing with MPs on the Public Administration Select Committee differences became apparent on how the independence of the chair should be exercised, and Finch decided to withdraw from the application process.[9][10]
Janet Finch was named a CBE in the 1999 New Year's Honours List for services to social science, and a DBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours List,[11] for services to social science and higher education.