Academic Spring

· life ·

This coming week is Fresher's Week, so once again, the campus will be filling up with students. I always think that the start of the academic year is a kind of Academic Spring. Life seems to return to campus, with fresh-faced green shoots, eager to start their life at University, and there's lots of visible activity. Which isn't to say that nothing happens over the vacation: contrary to what undergraduates (and others) believe, academics don't get the summer vacation off. We usually work harder than ever to try to get some solid research done before we're swept away by the tide of teaching once the academic year starts. But that activity is rather hidden (like bulbs and roots developing under the soil) as we work hidden away in labs and offices.

It's the start of a very busy time for me. I've got more teaching to do than ever, but despite that, I'm looking forward to seeing those green shoots again, and diving back into public activity again. For me, Universities only really seem fully alive when they are populated by undergraduates.

That's my feeling now, anyway: ask me again in late November, and I'll probably be itching to get the mower out.