Robert Burgess, senior pro vice-chancellor of the University of Warwick, will be the University of Leicester's vice-chancellor from next academic year. Professor Burgess will succeed Kenneth Edwards, who is retiring after 11 years. Dr Edwards was recently appointed chair of the Association of European Universities.
Sir Geoffrey Holland, vice-chancellor of the University of Exeter, has been appointed president of the Institute of Personnel and Development.
Wendy Scase, reader in medieval literature at Hull, is to take a chair in medieval literature at the University of Birmingham.
Gurharpal Singh, principal lecturer in politics and Asian studies in the department of historical and international relations at De Montfort University, has been appointed to the new C. R. Parkeh Chair in Indian politics in the University of Hull's department of politics and Asian studies from February next year.
John Garvey of the University of Birmingham's school of physics and astronomy has been appointed chair of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council's particle physics committee from January 1 next year.
Professor Garvey will chair the committee during the preparation for the experimental programme to be followed at CERN on the Large Hadron Collider, which will become operational in 2005.
Strathclyde University has promoted both Asoke K. Nandi, a reader in the department of electronic and electrical engineering, and Deepak G. Uttamchandani, a reader in the same department, as professors in the department.
Oxford University hit the headlines with its appointment of the actor Dame Diana Rigg as its new professor of theatre studies.