As befits the head of Oxford Brookes University’s school of hospitality management, Donald Sloan is a notably hospitable person who offers — as the dictionary defines that he should — a generous and cordial welcome to his guests. Thus an interview in his first-floor office at the Headington campus is followed by a superb lunch in the restaurant below.

The skills of head chef Richard Watson are seen in such starters as red leg partridge sausage and Oxford squash soup, main courses like stuffed plaice and honey-glazed Kelmscott pork fillet, and puddings including walnut tart and Waterperry apple and cinnamon trifle.

Evident, too, in the courteous and knowledgeable attentions of the young waiting staff is the dedication, the enthusiasm for their subject, that Donald and his colleagues are able to engender in those they instruct; for these are first-year students of the school’s undergraduate course in international hospitality management.

The restaurant, which is open to and well patronised by the general public, is an unusual adjunct to a department such as Donald controls, a school of such distinction that it is rivalled in Britain only by that at Surrey University and, in international terms, just by those of Lausanne, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a number of American institutions.

He explains: “The restaurant can encourage a misconception that we are encouraging people to go into operational roles. Some other places have ditched their restaurants as being inappropriate in an academic environment. But what we are trying to do is show modern good practice. It provides a live case study in responsible management, food supply and other matters of ethics relating to the industry.”

Lest this might sound somewhat too serious, he adds with a smile: “It’s also a fabulous environment in which to entertain.”

And entertainment matters, too, at the Brookes school where, thanks to the many contacts Donald has forged, students mix from the outset with many of the superstars of the food world, including Raymond Blanc, Madhur Jaffrey, Ken Hom, Michael Caines and Sheila Dillon.

These household names are ranged, along with those of many of the big companies in the field, under the banner of Oxford Gastronomica, Brookes’s specialist centre for the study of food, drink and culture.

Donald says: “They all seem to believe in what we are trying to achieve and they give of their time generously. They spend time interacting with students, supporting specific projects, acting as fundraising ambassadors. Indeed, Ken recently donated £22,500 and is now seeking match-funding from industry.

“We have also built up the Oxford Gastronomica Library — now one of the world’s most significant collections of texts on food and culture. it includes the private collections of John Fuller, Jane Grigson, Ken Hom, Prue Leith, beer writer Michael Jackson and the National Brewing Library — and is used by students, academics and food writers.”

As none could doubt on first hearing Donald speak, this mild-mannered 43-year-old comes from Scotland. Raised in the genteel Glasgow suburb of Lenzie, he is the youngest of the four children of David Sloan, a former professor of mathematics at the University of Strathclyde, and his wife Margaret.

His three siblings have also embraced academic life, albeit peripherally in the case of eldest brother Andy, a leading engineer and visiting professor at Strathclyde. Bill is professor of mathematics at Glasgow University and sister Lesley the head of prestigious George Heriot’s junior school in Edinburgh.

Donald was educated in the state sector, first at a local primary school and then at Lenzie Academy where he rose to become school captain. As an athlete, he specialised in the 800m and 1500m.

His academic achievements were such that it was “frowned on”, as he puts it, when he announced at school his wish to study international hospitality at Strathclyde.

“This wasn’t the sort of ambition expected of someone who did well academically at my school. The headmaster took me to one side and said he expected me to study economics and politics, with an eye to my joining one of the professions.”

But schoolboy Sloan stuck to his plan which had been inspired in part by the renaissance of Glasgow, reflected in its being named 1990 European City of Culture. His four years of study brought him a first long experience of living abroad with a six-month posting to a luxury hotel on Nantucket Island. (Such placements now occupy the whole of the second year for Brookes hospitality students.) Back at Strathclyde in the Scottish Hotel School, he was powerfully struck by the strong sense of commitment and shared ambitions that existed in the school.

“This was much more obvious than it was in other departments. My memory of this has strongly influenced my work in the Brookes school.”

After Strathclyde, Donald moved south to London and a significant change of lifestyle, embracing his enthusiasm for rock bands, theatre and dance. His work in events management did not go well initially.

“I walked out of my first job after one week, and was left considering what to do next, before things started to work out.”

From events he moved later to run a Thames-side restaurant in Chiswick, an informal brasserie in the loosely French style of the early 1990s.

After four years he moved back north of the border to work as a research assistant, where he was involved in a groundbreaking study concerning food ethics and supply chain management.

“We were trying to identify opportunities for small-scale Scottish producers, and how they might break down barriers to their entering the market.”

After two years, he moved to a six-month stint as a teaching assistant in the Scottish Hotel School before applying for a junior lectureship at Brookes, which he took up in January 1997.

“I was taken on as a lecturer in human resources management within the context of tourism, but after two years Clive Robertson, the head of the school, asked me to become director of the undergraduate school.”

“I enjoyed it very much. It began to give me a view of the big picture of management and made me realise I had something to offer here.”

When Robertson created the position of deputy head of school, Donald was encouraged to apply for it and, though the youngest of the 25 members of staff, was offered the job.

“This put a few noses out of joint. It was a case of ‘who is this upstart?’.”

The promotion naturally had the effect of placing Donald in line for promotion to boss of the school and this was achieved 10 years ago when a university restructuring moved Robertson to a more central role.

“I was still relatively inexperienced to be taking on the role,” he admits. “But I tried to develop firm, clear ideas about what is possible and how we can get there. Key to it has been to develop a strong collegiate culture among staff, holding to the shared view that we should provide students with a transformative educational experience.”

That rewarding work lies at the end of the course — which is notoriously not the case at present for many students — is both reassuring for them and a source of justified pride for Donald.

So, too, for him are the many accolades garnered by the school. They include top in Europe for hospitality-related research, top in the world for research productivity, and top in the UK for graduate salaries and graduate destinations.