Monday

Didn't achieve much today -  most of the items on my to-do list got ticked off but they were small things. Almost cleared my inbox and had some success in arranging next week's departmental research meeting. Colleagues seem to respond speedily and positively to invitations via the electronic calendar and I even flushed out two volunteer speakers to fill the vacant slots in the programme. Some progress with paperwork for PhD student and the funding application should at last have all the Faculty approvals to enable it to go through the internal system. Sent the VC and the dean details of last week's ICAEW event. Fulfilled all requests for papers from people I talked to last week.

In the afternoon met up with Austrian lawyer friend who is studying in Oxford this term. I think he is a frustrated academic. I don't know how he is managing to attend lectures and seminars, read and write and also keep up his job back in Austria but he seems very committed. He told me that he has found a German source which indicates that debates were going about unitary or two tier boards in Germany as early as the late 1800s, which I would be very interested to see.

Tomorrow: meetings with students, research leaders meeting and a PDR.