Manchester Metropolitan University

Jason Powell

Manchester Metropolitan University's newly appointed professor of community practice and social justice said he felt "genuine excitement and delight" when he was offered the job. "The opportunity to work with an outstanding team with strong interests on social care was very compelling," Jason Powell said. "My department and faculty also have a strong reputation and record on community research...health professions [and] the student experience, which were further attractive reasons to accept the post." Professor Powell, who has also been made a visiting research professor and visiting research scholar at the University of Oxford and Harvard University, respectively, wants to reinforce Manchester Met's burgeoning international reputation. "[It] has a great track record in working collaboratively with international partners. I wish to add...more international collaboration," he said. "Going for international bids in collaboration with researchers from different countries provides great opportunity...for understanding the possibilities and challenges of social care policy, theory and practice." Professor Powell gained a BA in criminal justice and sociology from Liverpool John Moores University and took an MA at the University of Liverpool before returning to John Moores to complete a PhD in social gerontology. He has previously worked at the universities of Central Lancashire and Liverpool.

Birmingham City University

Mark Reed

Birmingham City University has appointed a leading environmental scientist to its School of the Built Environment. Mark Reed joins from the University of Aberdeen, where he was acting director of its Centre for Environmental Sustainability. As reader in interdisciplinary environmental research, Dr Reed will work closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and other government partners to develop business opportunities in the natural environment. His work seeks to understand how knowledge exchange and stakeholder participation works. Dr Reed also investigates how people value nature and how society can pay for the benefits it provides, thus incentivising those who manage the countryside to do so sustainably. Dr Reed graduated from Aberdeen with a BSc and an MSc in tropical environmental science and agroforestry, respectively. He obtained a postgraduate certificate in learning and teaching in higher education before completing a PhD at the University of Leeds, where he held a senior lectureship.

University of Nottingham

Christine Ennew

The pro vice-chancellor for internationalisation at the University of Nottingham is to be the next provost and pro vice-chancellor of the institution's Malaysia campus. Christine Ennew, who will take up the position in spring 2013, will replace Ian Pashby, who is joining the University of Hull after five years in the post. "Malaysia is now a regional hub for international universities in Asia and competition is growing all the time," Professor Ennew said. "There are challenges ahead, but over the past decade Nottingham has built a strong and hugely attractive campus-based institution in Malaysia and we are continuing to invest heavily in teaching, research and the student experience. Over the next decade we need to ensure we get that balance right." Professor Ennew studied economics at the University of Cambridge and then began her long affiliation with Nottingham by completing a PhD in agricultural economics there in 1984. She said that teaching and learning will remain the Malaysian campus' core purpose, "but we will be focusing increased attention on strengthening research and business engagement, and we have an excellent base to build on". She added: "We need to focus on balanced growth in an increasingly competitive environment...We also need to strengthen our research activity by building on the core strengths of Nottingham, working in areas of direct relevance to the development of the Malaysian economy and in partnership with Malaysian universities."

Cardiff University

Kenneth Hamilton

An acclaimed pianist and academic has joined Cardiff University as professor of music. Kenneth Hamilton performs worldwide as a soloist on both modern and historical instruments, and has a series of high-profile performances on his CV, including a recreation of Liszt's 1847 concerts in Constantinople for the Istanbul International Festival. Besides his professional musicianship, Professor Hamilton is a veteran academic who has published widely in journals and the press alike. He joins Cardiff from the University of Birmingham, where he was reader in music and head of research at the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music. He gained a BMus and an MA from the University of Glasgow before obtaining a DPhil from Balliol College, Oxford, and has held posts at the University of Sheffield and Worcester College, Oxford. Professor Hamilton said that in his role at Cardiff, he wanted to contribute "not only to the musical life of the university itself, but also to that of the city as a whole".

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OTHER CHANGES

The University of Bath has promoted three academics to the position of professor. Stephen Husbands has been made a professor in the department of pharmacy and pharmacology, while Ed Feil and Will Wood have been made personal chairs in the department of biology and biochemistry. Professor Husbands uses medicinal chemistry to understand the mechanisms underlying neuropsychological diseases such as depression. Professor Feil is interested in understanding how pathogenic bacteria evolve over very short timescales, while Professor Wood's research focuses on wound healing and inflammatory cell migration.

Nick Agarwal has been appointed director of corporate affairs at the University of Sheffield. Mr Agarwal has a background in commercial marketing and broadcast journalism. For the past three years he has been strategic communications director for Asda, the supermarket chain. He will join Sheffield in October.

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The University of Birmingham has appointed Lorraine Gaytten as inaugural director of operations and business development at the Birmingham Foundation Academy. She joins from the University of Worcester, where she spent nine years as head of its International Centre. The academy will provide an opportunity for highly motivated learners from outside the UK to enter the university environment a year before the start of their undergraduate degrees.

The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University has named its new class of senior fellows - leading practitioners in various fields of international affairs who spend a year or semester at Yale teaching courses and mentoring students. It includes Emma Sky, a civilian peace activist who became an adviser to US generals in Iraq; David Brooks, The New York Times op-ed columnist; and Jim Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank.