Sir Robin McLaren, former ambassador to China, becomes chairman of the college council of Royal Holloway, University of London, in August. He succeeds Sir Robert Andrew.
Stephen O'Brien, chief executive of London First, has been elected chair of governors of the University of East London, where he has been governor for three years. Elizabeth Filkin, parliamentary commissioner for standards, will be his deputy.
Noel Lloyd, professor of mathematics and pro vice-chancellor of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, has been appointed registrar and secretary of the university.
Peter Camp, who runs his own solicitors' firm, Educational and Professional Services, and is a visiting fellow at the University of the West of England, has been appointed the first professor of legal ethics at the College of Law.
Simon Thompson, head of the department of medical statistics and evaluation at Imperial College School of Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital, has been appointed director of the biostatics unit in Cambridge. He will succeed Nick Day in January 2000.