Nicky-Sinead Gardner, former director of educational services and university librarian at the University of Ulster and an expert on the use of information technology in higher education, will join the University of Stirling as Britain's first professor of academic innovation.
Mike Baker, BBC education correspondent, becomes the first journalist to be appointed to the role of visiting professor at the Institute of Education, University of London.
Also at the institute, Chris Fowler, manager of the Education and Training Research Programme at British Telecom, will be a part-time director of the new Future Learning Centre.
Callum Thomas, former head of environment solutions at Manchester Airport, has been appointed to the new chair of sustainable aviation at Manchester Metropolitan University.
David Mant, professor of primary care epidemiology at the University of Southampton, has been appointed to the new chair of general practice at Oxford University. He will be a fellow of Kellogg College.
Simon Rogerson, director of the centre for computing and social responsibility at De Montfort University, has been appointed professor in computer ethics.
Dick Shepherd, former deputy head of consumer sciences at the Institute of Food Research in Reading, has become a reader in psychology at the University of Surrey.
Sir Bernard Ingham, former Downing Street press secretary and visiting professor at Middlesex University Business School, will help teach a new course at the business school in political marketing.
Andrew Lock, dean of the faculty of management and business and pro-vice-chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, will be installed next week as chairman of the Association of Business Schools, succeeding professor Chris Greensted, director of Strathclyde Graduate Business School.
Anne Huff, professor of strategic management at Cranfield School of Management, has been elected president of the Academy of Management in the US.