Arthur Naylor, principal of St Mary's, Strawberry Hill, has been appointed chairman of the Council of Church and Associated Colleges. He will succeed John Rea, principal of the college of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, who has served for the past two years. The new president of the council will be Lord Dearing, who will take up the post next spring.
Sir William Stubbs, rector of the London Institute since 1996, has been appointed chairman of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for a second three-year term.
Three candidates have received the required number of nominations to stand for election as general secretary of public service union Unison in succession to Rodney Bickerstaffe. They are: Roger Bannister, Knowsley branch secretary; Malkiat Bilku, London regional branch; and Davde Prentis, deputy general secretary. The ballot of Unison's 1.3 million members will be carried out from January 21 to February 18 and the result will be announced on February 28.
Jean McAllister, principal of Shipley College, West Yorkshire, has been appointed to the National Learning Targets Council, the government's main advisory body on national education and training targets and lifelong learning.
David Potts, former regional libraries telematics officer at the West Midlands Regional Library System, and Susi Woodhouse, former development officer for EARL, the consortium for public library networking, have joined the Library and Information Commission's People's Network team. They will advise on a project to link all the UK's public library service points to the internet and other online services by 2002.
Theatre and film director Nicholas Hytner has been appointed Cameron Mackintosh visiting professor of contemporary theatre at Oxford University. He succeeds Dame Diana Rigg next month.
Professor Philip Garrahan has joined Sheffield Hallam University as director of the School of Social Science and Law. Previously he was head of social, political, and economic sciences at the University.
Peter Toyne is to retire as vice-chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, as predicted in last week's THES diary. He described his time at John Moores as "14 years of Struggle".