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Edinburgh University's psychology department was guilty of an error of judgement in appointing self-styled "scientific racist" Chris Brand as convener of an ethics committee, the university's dean of social sciences has said.

Neil MacCormick said Mr Brand had now agreed to stand down as convener of the internal ethics committee, which checks students' research proposals, but will serve as one of six ordinary members. Mr Brand hit the headlines earlier this year when his book, The g Factor, was dropped by his publishers, Wiley, amid controversy over its theory that blacks are less intelligent than whites.

Professor MacCormick said: "I regret that, under extreme pressure of work, with exceptional student numbers enrolled in psychology, this aspect of the distribution of departmental workloads originally adopted by the department may have given students the impression of insensitivity to complaints which were raised last session."