I've always found mid-June a slightly sad time in the academic calendar, with the end of the academic year for undergraduates and the goodbyes to be said.  Before I became PVC I taught on modules in each year of my department's programmes, from 1st year undergraduate to Masters.  But teaching on third year modules, in particular, I  got to know so many students quite well only towards the end of their time at university - and then just as one was getting to know them enough to be able to advise them more on their future careers and take a broader view of their strengths (and weaknesses) mid-June came along and the end of the year.  The June examination boards and the departure of another batch of graduands clocks up the annual cycle for academics in a relentless way.

This year I have not actually been teaching in the second semester, but this week I will be attending my department's final degree-awarding exam board and will take great interest in seeing how those I taught in the first semester fare.

But the week will also see the start of the handover between the 2009-10 and the 2010-11 Union of Students officers.  Since I became PVC my contact with this group has in some ways become as important as the contact with my own students - and is often more intense as we work through common issues affecting the university.   The difference between the June departures of new graduates and the departure of the Union officers lies in the fact that it is not until September that the new cohort of stduents arrives to start their courses - but the new Student Officers take up the reins almost immediately.

Hence one of my first engagements tomorrow will be, with the VC, to meet the whole of the outgoing and incoming Student Officer teams as part of the handover.  And I will certainly be sorry to see this year's team go - just as I have always been sorry to see my own third year students leave.  But then the cycle will begin again.