- Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, who as Peter Brooke was Conservative higher education minister, secretary of state for Northern Ireland and chairman of the Churches Conservation Trust, will succeed Harry Woolf as pro chancellor and chairman of the University of London's council.
- The London School of Economics and Political Science has announced five honorary fellowships. They go to: Mervyn King , former professor of economics at LSE and governor-designate of the Bank of England; Gro Harlem Brundtland , director-general of the World Health Organisation and former prime minister of Norway; Eugenia Charles , dame of the Order of the British Empire, former prime minister of Dominica and member of the Inner Temple; Gordon Manzie , former chairman of Anglo Japanese Construction and of Forthspan, former member of the advisory board of LEK Partnership, governor of the LSE and trustee of the Stort Trust; and Jorma Ollila , chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Nokia Corporation.
- Ursula Howard , director of research at the Learning and Skills Development Agency, will next month take up the post of director of the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy.
- Janet Sprent , professor emeritus at the University of Dundee, has been granted honorary membership of the British Ecological Society.
- Brendan Barber , president of City University students' union in the early 1970s, has become general secretary-elect of the Trades Union Congress. He will succeed John Monks, who in May will become general secretary of the European TUC.