Stephen Douglas McKay (born 3 May 1968) is a British academic and since 2013 the first Distinguished Professor of Social Research at the

University of Lincoln The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...

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databaseProfile for Professor Stephen McKay
Staff Directory of the University of Lincoln McKay is one of Britain's foremost social policy researchers, his work having helped to redefine how poverty is measured.Social policy research specialist becomes new distinguished professor at Lincoln
University of Lincoln Research Blog, 2 May 2013

Early life

McKay was born at the Aldershot General Hospital in

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

in 1968, the son of Angela ''née'' Lindsay, a sales assistant, and Paul McKay, a roof tiler. His siblings are Glenn McKay (born 1966) and Rachael McKay (born 1972). Stephen McKay attended Heron Wood Boys' School in Aldershot before attending Pembroke College at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

(1986–1989) where he gained a First Class

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Academic career

On leaving Oxford McKay held various posts at the universities of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...

, at the

Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is an independent economic research institute based in London, United Kingdom, which specialises in UK taxation and public policy. It produces both academic and policy-related findings. The institute's ...

(IFS), the

National Centre for Social Research The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is a registered charity and is the largest independent social research institute in the UK. The research charity was founded in 1969 by Sir Roger Jowell and Gerald Hoinville with the aim of carryin ...

(NatCen), and the

Policy Studies Institute The Policy Studies Institute (PSI) is a British think-tank and research institute. PSI began in 1931 as Political and Economic Planning and became the Policy Studies Institute in 1978 on its merger with the Centre for Studies in Social Policy (est ...

(PSI). He was senior research fellow and deputy director at the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol (2002–2007) and, after gaining his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

(2007) he was appointed professor of social research at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

(2007–2013), where he was also director of the

ESRC The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundin ...

Doctoral Training Centre from 2010 and a leading member of Birmingham's Third Sector Research Centre. Since 2013 he has been the first distinguished professor of social research in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the

, where his subject specialisms include social research; inequality; family policy; quantitative methods; social security and pensions. With Karen Rowlingson he co-authored ''Social Security in Britain'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999). He is the author and co-author of various academic articles and papers, including 'Child Maintenance: How Much Should the State Require Fathers to Pay When Families Separate?' (''Family Law'', 2013); 'Child Support Judgments: Comparing Public Policy to the Public's Policy' (University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 34/2014); 'Levels of Financial Capability in the UK' (''Public Money & Management'', Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 29–36, February 2007); 'When 4 ≈ 10,000: The Power of Social Science Knowledge in Predictive Performance' (2019); 'Has lockdown strengthened marriages?' (2020); and 'Parents in lockdown' (2020). McKay was awarded the Progress Prize by

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 2017 for his work in predicting layoffs in the Fragile Families Challenge.Prize Winners (2017)
Fragile Families Challenge website He is an external examiner for the

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in social policy at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

and is a Fellow of the

Economic and Social Research Council The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...

(ESRC) Peer Review College and a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Academy of Social Sciences The Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) is a representative body for social sciences in the United Kingdom. The academy promotes social science through its sponsorship of the Campaign for Social Science, its links with Government on a variety of m ...

.
Press release - the

, 19 March 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKay, Stephen 1968 births Academics of Loughborough University Academics of the University of Bath Academics of the University of Birmingham Academics of the University of Lincoln Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Bristol Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences Living people People educated at Alderwood School People from Aldershot