PROFESSOR Andrew Hamnett, the principal of Strathclyde University, will retire next year after eight years of service. The process of appointing his successor will begin next month with an announcement anticipated by the end of the year.
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cotland University has announced the reappointment of Sir Robert Smith as its chancellor. Appointed to the post in 2003, he will now remain in office until 2013. Chairman of the Weir Group and Scottish and Southern Energy, Smith has also recently been asked to lead the organising company of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
NEWSSCOTS are the best in the UK at learning a foreign language, according to a survey by Rosetta Stone. The learning specialists found that 41 per cent of Scottish people laid claim to second or third language skills, the highest rate of any other area in Britain.
PUPILS from Loretto School won the regional heat of the UKMT Team Maths Challenge, beating 17 Edinburgh schools for a place in the national final. They will join the winners of the Glasgow and Aberdeen finals at the event on 23 June.
LAND from the Heathhall campus of Dumfries and Galloway College has been given to the local council to use as the site of a new primary school. The 7,000-square-metre site will be given to the council after the campus is vacated by the college later this year to make way for a housing development.
OLYMPIC silver medal-winner Nick Gillingham will officially open the state-of-the-art Kilgraston School swimming pool on 11 May. The Perthshire based all-girls’ school opened the 25m pool to pupils last week.
AWARDSSCREEN Academy Scotland, a collaboration between Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art, won in two categories at the recent Scottish Students on Screen awards run by BAFTA Scotland. With nine of the 20 nominations in total, Screen Academy Scotland were awarded the best fiction and best music video prizes at the event last month. The Academy’s River Child short also picked up best short film drama at the recent Celtic International Media festival in Ireland.
THREE Scottish secondary schools have been shortlisted for a Marketing Excellence Award by the Marketing Society Scotland. Teams from Kinross High School, Speyside High School and Airdrie Academy produced papers analysing the marketing skills of Scottish brands and will now face a Dragon’s Den-style interrogation by marketing professionals to determine who should take the award.
GLASGOW University Business School has won a coveted Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its success in attracting growing numbers of international students to study on the school’s MSc management programme. The school has increased its overseas student income by 261 per cent in three years by developing partnerships with universities in China, India and South America.
DEXTER Doak, a Biggar Primary School pupil, has won a commendation in this year’s Scottish Book Trust’s poetry competition. Dexter’s poem Madness and Sanity won tickets for his class to see Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen.
EVENTSADULT and older teenage singers are invited to help celebrate the tenth anniversary of Edinburgh Young Musicians’ Saturday morning music school on Sunday. They are holding a “come and sing Haydn’s Creation from scratch” fundraising day at the performing arts centre of Stewart’s Melville College. Advance booking is required, so visit the web at
www.e-y-m.org.ukART and design students from Edinburgh’s Telford College will display their work at an exhibition in Leith Library. A selection of paintings, sculptures and textiles will be on show until 1 May.
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