About Sir Howard Newby: Sir Howard became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in August 2008. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, having previously spent five years as the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
His first Vice-Chancellor’s role was at the University of Southampton, where he also spent two years as President of Universities UK, the UK body which represents the university sector. He moved there from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), where he was Chairman (1988-94) and then Chief Executive (1994). He was also President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 2001-2002.
His other academic posts include Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex and visiting appointments in Australia and the United States. From 1980-83, he was Professor of Sociology and Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2001 Sir Howard was appointed Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) where he served a five-year term. He moved from there to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West of England.
Sir Howard has published many books and articles on social change in rural England and was, for eight years, a Rural Development Commissioner, a member of the Government body responsible for the economic and social regeneration of rural England. From 1983-88 he was director of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Data Archive, a national facility for storing and disseminating computerised datasets for use by researchers in the public and private sectors.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995 for his services to social science and was awarded a knighthood in 2000 for his services to higher education.
