* Alex MacLennan , professor and assistant principal at the University of Paisley, has been appointed principal and chief executive of Ayr College.
* Geoff Gadd , professor in the division of environmental and applied biology at the University of Dundee, has been elected president of the British Mycological Society.
* Pat Cantrill , governor of Sheffield College, former senior civil servant working at the National Health Service Executive headquarters and Trent regional office, has been appointed consultant and visiting professor at Sheffield Hallam University's School of Health and Social Care.
* Trevor Seeley , former chief press officer at National Grid Transco and former head of community investment for the National Grid, has been appointed community relations manager at the University of Warwick.
* The Higher Education Funding Council for England has appointed the following members to the assessment panel for the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning: panel chair David Vaughan of the Cumbria Institute of Arts; Liz Beaty of Hefce; Sally Brown , professor at the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education; Barry Jackson , professor at Middlesex University; Philip Jones , professor at the University of Sheffield; Frances Mannsaker of the University of Lincoln; Ranald Macdonald of Sheffield Hallam University; Patrick McGhee , professor at the University of Central Lancashire; Clive Robertson of Oxford Brookes University; Gaynor Taylor of Leeds Metropolitan University; and Mantz Yorke of Liverpool John Moores University.