The BSG sends sincere and fulsome congratulations to Professor Dianne Willcocks who was awarded a CBE for services to higher education in the recent Queen’s birthday honours. Dianne has been a stalwart member of BSG and Chaired the Averil Osborn Fund Awards Panel from its inception in 1995 until 2007.

Along with Sheila Peace and Leonie Kellaher, Dianne established the ground breaking Centre for Environmental and Social Studies on Ageing at the Polytechnic of North London (now London Metropolitan University). CESSA quickly established an international reputation for, among other things, studies of residential care. Dianne was appointed Assistant Principal at Sheffield Hallam University in the early 1990s, and in 1999 as Principal of the College of Ripon and York St John, which she has subsequently transformed to a University College affiliated to the University of Leeds and, from 2006, into the autonomous York St John University . She was the Chair of the Standing Conference of HE Principals (now renamed GuildHE) in 2003-05, and was a governor of Teesside University from 2001-03. Dianne is a strong advocate for widening participation in higher education, and serves as a member of HEFCE's Widening Participation Strategic Advisory Committee.

For more information, see http://www.dioceseofyork.org.uk/cgi/news/news.cgi?t=template&a=1328

Professor Ian Philp

Congratulations to Professor Ian Philp who was also awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours.  Many members know Ian primarily as the Department of Health for England National Director (“Tsar”) for Older People from 2006 to 2008, but during the mid-1990s he was a very active member of the BSG, and served on the Executive for a short time.  He is the foundation Marjorie Coote Professor for Health Care of the Elderly in the School of Medicine at the University of Sheffield, and was the first Director of the Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing.  Having relinquished his national role, he has returned to SISA and is expanding a research programme around the EASYCARE assessment instrument.

For further information see: http://www.shef.ac.uk/sisa/staff/profiles/philp.html

Professor Janet Finch

We are delighted to report that Professor Janet Finch, Vice-Chancellor of Keele University was awarded a DBE, Dame Commander of the British Empire, in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours List, for services to Social Science and to Higher Education. Janet has researched and written extensively on intergenerational issues and has presented at a number of BSG conferences.

She became Vice Chancellor at Keele in September 1995. Before that she was at Lancaster University, where she was Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Social Relations.

A Sociologist by background, Professor Finch was awarded a CBE in the 1999 New Year's Honours List for services to Social Science.   In the same year she was named as one of the Founder Academicians of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences. In recognition of her contributions to Social Science, and more generally to higher education, she has been awarded honorary degrees by seven Universities.

Her research expertise lies principally in studies of family relationships, especially relationships across generations. She has held a number of research grants and published extensively on this, and related, topics. ‘Family Obligations and Social Change’, published in 1989 by Polity Press and ‘Negotiating Family Responsibilities’ , published with Jennifer Mason in 1993 by Routledge are among her most significant publications in Gerontology.

Her most recent book is the co-authored study Passing On: Kinship and Inheritance in England (2000).

With thanks to Dr Kate Davidson, Professor Tony Warnes and Professor Judith Phillips for these contributions.