Don's diary

On Vesting Day St Andrew's College merged with the University of Glasgow to form a faculty of education.

Four days to Vesting Day

Draft a bid for the Economic and Social Research Council's Teaching and Learning Programme - closing date early April. Even with good contacts, developing a bid to raise levels of achievement in the deprived areas of Glasgow, Dundee and Stirling in just over a month is tight. Detailed work on the levels of poverty in Glasgow still manages to shock and anger.

Three days to go

Afternoon at the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council for a potentially tricky meeting. Attached to a recent (large) grant for developing research in the new merged faculty is an impossibly complex spreadsheet, to be returned quarterly. Council officials are helpful - the spreadsheet overstates (and we have over-read) their requirements for accountability. Jump on train for Aberdeen, further frantic postgraduate commentary. Then meet with staff from a course for which I am external examiner.

Two days to go

Attend formal opening of new school and therapy building at Camphill Rudolf Steiner Schools, the placement of last resort for children with learning difficulties. Talk with various educational psychologists and social workers. Am struck how, simultaneously, they criticise and court the place. Meet with research colleagues in afternoon to finalise report - am staggered by their grasp of detail (both ex-LEA officials).

One day to go

Ten postgraduate supervisions interspersed with a wake for the department of education which is disappearing after 100 years. The only three professors are still living and appear together - one is taken ill and looks as if he might not outlast the department (he does). As a recent arrival I feel somewhat distanced from the nostalgia.

Vesting Day

Spend the day finalising ESRC bid in Stirling with delightful colleague of new acquaintance. Needing information, I phone Glasgow to find secretarial rock of the ex-department very distressed. The new management has sought to make an impact first thing. Cyber consolation feels weak. Finish bid.

Day after Vesting Day

Elder daughter needs distraction from highers' revision. Spontaneous, un-green but socially necessary day trip to see my godparents in Cumbria. This loving couple are a constant reference point for me. Godfather is a craft HMI, recruited just after the war. A gentle and noble man, he recounts the joy he gained from supporting teachers and their work with pupils. Driving home I wonder whether the next generation of educationalists will think us gentle, noble and joyful. Reach pessimistic conclusion. Spend the rest of the day mending fences.

Stephen Baron Director of research in the faculty of education, University of Glasgow.