Happy to be back to where it all began

Not everyone can say their employer is the reason for their existence.

But I can. I am now employed by the University of Edinburgh as a science communications officer, helping academics translate their complex research into clear, engaging and accessible content for different audiences, including the public, policymakers, funders and other researchers.

At one point, I was also a student at the University of Edinburgh, on a student exchange from the University of Otago. I studied English literature and history of art under the high ceilings and neoclassical grandeur of Edinburgh’s Old College, sitting in the sunshine at George Square between classes, cramming in the busy brutalist-era Main Library.

You see, my grandparents met at the University of Edinburgh, and had they not met, my father would never have been born, and had he not been born, I would have never existed.

Grandpa (John Balchin) was studying for a master of arts degree, while Grandma (Carol Davidson) was studying domestic sciences. They met at choir practice.

Grandpa was tall, dark, handsome and hungry. He had forgotten to pack his lunch. Grandma was slight, beautiful and unhappy with the sardine sandwiches the landlady at her boarding house had packed for her.

It was, as they say, a "meet-cute".

Grandma offered Grandpa her sardine sandwiches and so their love story began. In fact, they married the day after Grandpa graduated in July 1955.

The University of Edinburgh has therefore always been part of my life story. When I picked Otago for my undergraduate degree, I did so because Dunedin was not only the furthest I could get from my overprotective family, but it was also known as "the Edinburgh of the South."

In my second year of my BA, I flew across the globe to Edinburgh — my first time leaving New Zealand. I was 19 years old, naive and nervous, on my first real "adult" adventure. Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh in particular, did not disappoint.

The University of Edinburgh is a fantastic university with a long and storied past. Founded in 1583, the University of Edinburgh played a key role in the Scottish Enlightenment, attracting great thinkers like David Hume, Adam Smith and James Hutton.

The university made pioneering contributions to medicine, science, philosophy and literature, and acquired a global reputation as a training ground for physicians and scientists. Today, the University of Edinburgh is one of the top-ranked research institutions in the world, having particular strengths in data science, sustainability and humanities.

I must be honest. I was a dreadful student. After my first few months, I started skipping classes. I handed in sub-par assignments (if I handed them in at all). I neglected my books, my emails and my tutorials. I didn’t even turn up to half of my final exams.

But to be fair, I had a good excuse — two weeks into my student exchange, my younger brother, John, died suddenly. My world imploded and studying was the last thing on my mind.

But the city of Edinburgh, and the people I met at the University of Edinburgh, soothed my heart.

My new friends — those I had met only a week prior — surrounded me with love and empathy. They wrapped their arms around me, let me sob snotty tears into their shoulders, and bought me cookies from Sainsburys.

On the night I found out about my brother’s death (at 3am via a pixelated Facetime call), my friend Harriet  swaddled me up in my purple duvet and took me outside to the Meadows, where we sat on a park bench and chain-smoked cigarettes until the sun rose. Fidra took me home to her family in Crieff for Christmas and they treated me as if I were their own daughter. 

The Student Exchange office helped me navigate all the red tape and fill in all the wearisome forms required for obtaining extensions for essays and "compassionate consideration" for my end-of-year marks. I saw a university psychologist who looked like a Hobbit and was similarly kind and approachable. 

My professors were kind and awkward. I met fellow exchange students who took me out for drinks at the local pub (The Golf Tavern) and day-trips to Jedburgh Abbey and St Andrews. I got horrendously drunk with my new flatmates and stole traffic cones with them after clubbing until 5am at Hive (Britain’s stickiest nightclub). 

My time at the University of Edinburgh could very easily have been utterly miserable. But it wasn’t. It was incredibly, incredibly difficult at times, but the people around me pulled me through. 

And now I’m on the other side of the staff/student divide. No workplace is perfect; no employer is always just, fair or reasonable. Working for a university is a real challenge at times — like all universities, the University of Edinburgh is a slow-moving bureaucratic beast. 

The endless meetings and emails do my head in sometimes, and it can be frustrating navigating the academics vs admin divide (I fall in the "admin" category) with all the hierarchy, politics and power struggles. 

At the moment, there’s serious talk of compulsory redundancies and other cost-cutting endeavours (apparently there’s a £140 million budget hole that needs to be plugged). Strikes are on the horizon.

But there are still moments of excitement — receiving news that my colleagues have been awarded major funding for a clinical trial, for example, or helping a PhD student deliver a fantastic public engagement activity at a local school. 

Best of all, I’m back in the city and the university where I first found a "home away from home", a place where I found two best friends (who still live in Edinburgh, and with whom I catch up regularly), a place where my beloved grandparents met. 

• Jean Balchin is an ODT columnist who has started a new life in Edinburgh.