Monthly Archives: September 2014

Medway Community Scholarship

Are you interested in developing the independence and skills employers are looking for?

Have you got a passion that you want to share with the Medway Community?

The Medway community scholarship scheme provides awards of up to £1,000 and gives individuals the freedom and support to be able to run a project which will really make a difference, whether that be sport, music, art, environmental, as long as your application meets the criteria the scope is broad.

Application is open to all students on Medway-based courses.

Visit the Medway Community Scholarship webpages for more information.

Launch of Kent Student Law Review

Kent Student Law Review (KSLR), a new student-led law journal, will be launched at Kent Law School in October.

The journal, which will be issued annually, provides a platform for students and academics at Kent Law School to have their work reviewed and published. It has been produced by an Editorial Board drawn from current students and recent graduates, led by Editors-in-Chief Ayda Tabrizi and Nico Mesiainen (pictured).

Nico said:

‘We seek to promote the unique legal heritage of Kent Law School by promoting and publishing theoretically informed critical legal scholarship, which situates law in society.

‘In this first volume, we are publishing articles written by Kent students and alumni. Topics range from IP Law and assisted suicide to climate change.’

The Editorial Board has been supported by Kent Law School staff, including Law Lecturer Máiréad Enright and a Review Committee comprising Professor Rosemary Hunter, Anne Bottomley and Dr Vicky Conway.

A launch party for the journal will be held in Grimond Foyer/GLT2 on Friday 3 October, from 6pm until 8pm.

Further information about making a submission to the journal is available on the Kent Student Law Review webpage and on the KSLR Facebook page.

For more information: email a.p.shieber@kent.ac.uk

International Student Experience Fair

Come along to the International Student Experience Fair on Tuesday 21 October, 1-3pm, in Darwin Conference Suite and learn how you can enhance your studies and improve your wellbeing at Kent.

Enjoy an afternoon of cake and refreshments and find out more about the support services available to international students.

Perhaps you need help with your studies, or you’d like to attend workshops to enhance your employability?

Would you like to take part in wellbeing activities or attend one-to-one counselling?

Find out more at the fair!

They’ll be a prize draw and the opportunity to win Amazon vouchers. An event not to be missed!

This event is for international students only.

There is no need to book the event, just turn up on the day.

Welcome events for international students

International Development has organised a special programme of events for you during the week 22 – 26 September, to welcome you to the University.

These events are free of charge. If you have not already booked a ticket for these events, please turn up on the day and we will do our best to accommodate you, although we cannot guarantee a place.

Canterbury students

Welcome Talks – Tuesday 23 September 10.00 – 11.00 and 11.30 – 12.30 in Woolf Lecture Theatre 1

Welcome Dinner – Tuesday 23 September and Thursday 25 September 19.00 in Rutherford and Darwin Colleges

Erasmus Welcome Buffet (Erasmus Students Only) – Friday 26 September 12.30 – 14.00 in Darwin Conference Suite

Trip to Leeds Castle – Sunday 28 September 11.00 departing from Darwin Bus Stop

Medway students

Welcome Talk – Friday 26 September 11.30 – 12.30 in Medway Building Room M0-05

Welcome Buffet – Friday 26 September 12.30 – 14.00 in Rochester Building Room R2 -09

Trip to Leeds Castle – Sunday 28 September 11.00 departing from Gillingham Building

For live updates during your welcome week, follow our live international Twitter channel @UniKentIntLive.

If you have any questions please email international@kent.ac.uk

Cake event – Registry today!

Chase away the Monday blues with a slice of cake (there’s gypsy tart, too!).

A cake event will be taking place in Registry reception (EMS entrance) from 10am-noon on Monday 15 September, in aid of Variety, the children’s charity. The event is part of fundraising by Pat King (in the Publishing Office) for her Italian Job Mini rally in October.

Plus, this is your last chance to buy official Italian Job raffle tickets – only £1 each.
1st prize: A 1992 Mini Cooper 1.3i
2nd prize: A 7-day holiday for two people to Rome, staying in a Crowne Plaza hotel
3rd prize: A hamper of Italian food and drink.

These are official Italian Job raffle tickets… however the total amount sold will be added to Pat’s overall fundraising

Draw will take place on 1 November and winners will be notified by post on 5 November.

University Diary 2014-15

The University Diary for 2014-15 is now available from the Print Unit – your school/department may have already placed an order.

For the coming year, the 50th Anniversary team has added information relevant to the 50th celebrations as well as quotations from our alumni.

Inevitably, there will be changes to some of the dates of the University meetings during the year and so the diary dates are available from a shared Outlook Calendar “University Diary”. This will be kept up-to-date with any changes.

You can access this by going to your outlook calendar, clicking the ‘Home’ tab and choosing ‘Open Calendar’ then ‘Open Shared Calendar’ then either type or select from the drop down list ‘University Diary’.

You can also find latest information on meetings and events across the University on the online Events Calendar.

I will review how valuable it is to have the meeting dates in the diary for next year. Given most staff now use the Outlook calendar, we could use a shared calendar to record the University meeting dates and leave them out of the printed diary. This would mean the diary could be available before the summer.

Jon Pink
Academic Registrar

Athena SWAN Awareness Day – 19 September

Good Practice Benefits All is the theme of the Athena SWAN Awareness Day 2014 to which all staff are invited on Friday 19 September.

The University was awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze Award in April, which recognised our commitment to the Athena SWAN initiative. The initiative is focused on advancing women’s careers in higher education and research in the sciences. By pursuing this agenda, we aim to create the best working environment for all staff, and this year’s event will cover themes relevant to staff across the Faculties and Professional Service departments.

A draft programme is already available and we invite you to join us in the Grimond Foyer on Canterbury campus at 09:30am. The event will run until 1.30pm and includes lunch.

We can confirm that Professor Paul Walton, from the Department of Chemistry at York University, will give a keynote address: ‘Becoming an Athena SWAN Gold Department’. A panel discussion, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, will give participants the chance to discuss the initiative and find out what we’re doing here at Kent.

There will also be workshop sessions on: Promotion; Career Planning for Early Career Researchers (and those wondering what their next step should be); Whether Female Programmers and Male Librarians are Exotic Species; Writing an Athena SWAN Application; and Unconscious Bias.

We welcome all staff – men and women; academic and professional service; Medway and Canterbury based – to attend the event. To find out more and register, visit the Awareness Day webpages.

Want to stop smoking?

Occupational Health is working with the NHS to start another successful stop smoking programme.

Quitters will be given individual appointments with a NHS professional. Or if you prefer you can come with a friend. The programme starts on 18 September 2014 and the sessions will be held in Occupational Health, Keynes College.

If interested, please contact Pat Armstrong on ext 4691 or email Occupationalhealth@kent.ac.uk

Night bus service

This year the University is funding a trial night bus service.

The service will mean that there will be buses operating to and from the campus 24 hours a day for 6 days a week (excluding Christmas holiday).

Prices

Uniday ticket is valid from 5am to 5am – £2.80
Uniweek ticket – £8.00
Single ticket – £1.70

Unirider ticket is valid on all Stagecoach buses in Kent and East Sussex.

Buy early and purchase your Unirider for £170. After 5 October the ticket will be £240.

Routes

The usual route will continue to operate until midnight. All buses which has the title ‘Nite’ on the front of the bus will operate using the following route:

From the campus

Canterbury campus – St Stephens Hill – Forty Acres Road – St Dunstans – Sainsburys – Bus Station

To the campus

Bus Station – Canterbury East – St Dunstans – Forty Acres Road – St Stephens Hill – Canterbury campus

View bus route map

Timetable

The ‘nite’ bus service will operate from 18:55hrs.

View the timetable.

This service is provided in partnership with Stagecoach to provide travel between Canterbury City Centre and the University campus.

Juliet Thomas, Assistant Director Estates: Facilities Management, said:

‘We are delighted to be working with Stagecoach in providing the new 24 hour bus service. This service will be an invaluable to students and staff who need to use facilities on the Campus or in Canterbury at all times of the day and night.’

For more information: email transport@kent.ac.uk

Improve where you live

Have you got a great idea that you think would improve your community through technology?

Want to win the chance to get your idea turned into reality?

Take part in this autumn’s community ‘Transformed by You’ challenge in East Kent to help find solutions together.

From beaches, markets, restaurants, bus stops and skate parks to urban games, accessibility, learning zones, outdoor spaces, busking or street art – if you’ve got an idea, share it and work with others to help it become reality.

Embrace Your Space aims to bring people, communities and technology developers together to come up with innovative ways of using technology to improve their area.

The challenge is now open and you can post your ideas or solutions to local issues through the ‘Transformed by You’ website.

You can make suggestions, comment on others, form project groups and vote on ideas.

A final winning solution will be chosen by a panel of judges at the Innovation Day on 29 November at the University of Kent. All are welcome to attend, in particular if you’ve got skills that can help people develop solutions.

The best entry will win support they need to take forward their solution.

There are already some ideas posted for you to take a look at and comment on.

How can you get involved?

Register and post your ideas on the website
Pass the email and flyer on to all your friends, family and colleagues and start to come up with ideas
If you’re a developer and a designer, post your ideas or link with others to help develop the technology for theirs.
Follow us on Twitter

Thank you and we look forward to you being part of the challenge.