In the first year of his two-year appointment, Professor Baker will work with staff in the culture, communications and societies academic group. He will be giving a lecture later this year on the subject: “Does education get the media it deserves?

Caroline Gipps, formerly dean of research at the institute, has been appointed deputy pro vice-chancellor of Kingston University from February next year.

The institute has also announced the appointment of six new professors and six new readers from October 1.

Julia Brannen is to be professor in the sociology of the family, and Peter Moss to be professor in early childhood provision; Andy Green and Michael Young, both specialists in post-compulsory education, become professors in education; and John Bynner and Heather Joshi, noted for their work in the British Birth Cohort Studies, move from City University to become, respectively, professor of social sciences in education and professor in economic and developmental demography in education.

Readerships go to the following institute staff in recognition of their contribution to the field: Priscilla Alderson (in childhood studies), Robert Cowen (in comparative education), Deborah Epstein (in education), Pamela Sammons (in education), Ian St James-Roberts (in child development) and Sheila Turner (in education).

David Mallen, county education officer of East Sussex, has been appointed to the Funding Agency for Schools and two existing members - Linda Wedgbury and Rodney East - have been reappointed. All three will serve until the FAS is disbanded next year when the new categories of schools are introduced.

A York-based composer, Clive Wilkinson, has joined the staff of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds as a lecturer in contemporary music. The NSCD hopes his appointment will allow students to extend their understanding of contemporary music and he looks forward to working with dancers and choreographers.

Three new members have been appointed to the board of the Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales (ACCAC). They are Eileen Davies, head of the science department at Trinity College, Camarthen, Elizabeth Byard Williams, assistant director of education at Blaenau Gwent Borough Council, and Bryn Roberts, managing director of Teclyn Ltd in Llandudno.

Pamela Lomax, professor of educational research at Kingston University, has been elected president of the British Education Research Association (BERA), which represents 1000 researchers from universities, colleges, research institutes and local education authorities.BERA’s vice-president is Peter Mortimore, director of London University’s Institute of Education.

Alun Davies, education chief of theVale of Glamorgan, South Wales, is to add social services to his brief within an expanded directorate.

A distinguished authority on new technologies is to be the new director general of research councils, who advises the Government on its strategy for the science budget. He is John Taylor, currently director of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Europe, and director of the Peripherals, Appliances and Consumer Systems Research Centre.

Dr Taylor, 55, is president-elect of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and is a visiting professor at Imperial College and Bristol University. He succeeds Sir John Cadogan on January 1 next year.

David Collins is to be the first professor of sport at Edinburgh University, a post resulting from the recent integration of Moray House Institute of Education into the University of Edinburgh as its faculty of education. The faculty will now carry sole responsibility for training Scotland’s PE teachers.

Professor Collins, a former Royal Marine with wide experience in teaching sport and PE in secondary and higher education, held a personal chair in sport psychology and was director of the sport psychology research programme at Manchester Metropolitan University.