Brice Dickson, a barrister and professor of law at the University of Ulster for the past eight years, has been appointed the first human rights commissioner for Northern Ireland. He will head a team of nine other commissioners.
American senator George Mitchell, who brokered the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, has agreed to accept the appointment as the next chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast.
Film actor, producer and director Richard Attenborough was installed yesterday as chancellor of the University of Sussex. The post was previously held by the duke of Richmond and Gordon.
Barry Saggers, co-ordinator for master degree courses in biological and biomedical sciences at Nescot, Epsom's college of higher and further education, has been appointed visiting professor in immunology at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences in Germany.