Abstract
Given a closed smooth manifold M of even dimension 2n ≥ 6 with finite fundamental group, we show that the classifying space BDiff(M) of the diffeomorphism group of M is of finite type and has finitely generated homotopy groups in every degree. We also prove a variant of this result for manifolds with boundary and deduce that the space of smooth embeddings of a compact submanifold N ⊂ M of arbitrary codimension into M has finitely generated higher homotopy groups based at the inclusion, provided the fundamental group of the complement is finite. As an intermediate result, we show that the group of homotopy classes of simple homotopy self-equivalences of a finite CW complex with finite fundamental group is up to finite kernel commensurable to an arithmetic group.