* Douglas Tallack , professor of American studies and pro vice-chancellor for student affairs at the University of Nottingham, has replaced Peter Ford as chair of the Universitas 21 steering group. The network of 17 universities includes Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as leading institutions in Australasia, Canada, Europe and the Far East.
* The Cambridge-MIT Institute has appointed two executive directors: Edward Crawley , professor and department head of aeronautics and astronautics, professor of engineering systems and MacVicar faculty fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Michael Kelly , Prince Philip professor of technology at the University of Cambridge, fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering and vice-president of the UK Institute of Physics.
* Timothy Emlyn Jones , professor and deputy director of the Glasgow School of Art, has been appointed dean at Burren College of Art in association with the National University of Ireland, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Royal College of Art. He will be responsible for launching the first Irish master of fine art programme.
* Patrick Dowling , vice-chancellor and chief executive of the University of Surrey and former president of the Institution of Structural Engineers, chair of the Steel Construction Institute and chair of the UK's Engineering Council, has been elected to the Yugoslav Academy of Engineering.
* David Macdonald , director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the zoology department, University of Oxford, has been appointed to the council of English Nature.