Hong Kong head moves

The director of Hong Kong's Open Learning Institute has been appointed to run the Commonwealth of Learning, set up by Commonwealth governments in 1988 to encourage wider international access to quality education and training.

Gajaraj Dhanarajan will become COL's president when his term of office in Hong Kong ends in July. He succeeds COL's founding president, James Maraj, who is to become executive director of the Mauritian tertiary education commission.

Ian Macdonald, chairman of COL's board of governors, said: "Under Professor Dhanarajan's leadership we expect COL to maintain and enlarge its active and vigorous role within the international educational community."