Saul Becker

Becker is a former pupil of Rossall School and a graduate of the University of Nottingham: BA (1981); MA (1983); and PhD (1987). His Doctorate was on the relationships between poverty and the use of social services. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts is a Registered Social Worker RSW) with Social Work England.[2] He has practiced as a local authority social worker and senior welfare rights officer.

In May 2022 Becker was appointed Professor of Children and Families at Manchester Metropolitan University.[3] Previous posts held include: Director of Research, & Andrew and Virginia Rudd Professor of Social Care Research and Education Practice, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge; Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex, UK.;[4] Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences, University of Birmingham;[5] Assistant Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Internationalisation), University of Nottingham; Head of the School of Social Policy and Sociology, University of Nottingham; Director of Research, Institute of Applied Social Studies, University of Birmingham; Co-founder and associate director, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University.

Becker is known as a highly funded and impactful researcher and academic, with more than 50 externally funded research projects as Principal Investigator.[6]

His research impact has been recognised by the Carers Trust which appointed him as their first-ever Ambassador,[7] AccessHE which recognised him as a Role Model[8] and Universities UK which named his as one of the Nation's Lifesavers.[9]

He was a member of the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 Social Work and Social Policy Sub-panel 22.[10]

Becker is a prolific author with over 350 publications (including 18 books) and over 240 conference papers, most as invited keynote speaker.[11]

He was also the chair of the UK Social Policy Association and the founding series editor for the Policy Press Understanding Welfare book series. He and his work have featured in nine television documentaries and hundreds of radio broadcasts.