Monthly Archives: December 2014

Kentmas winner

Congratulations to Sarah Harden, a second year Religious Studies student, for winning the top prize of an iPad Mini in the ’12 days of Kentmas’ student competition.

The ’12 days of Kentmas’ is festive quiz which involves students answering daily questions about the University’s student experience.

This year we received over 1,200 entries. Six students won a 50th anniversary bunny and a further six students received a special edition University of Kent Monopoly.

Thank you to everyone who took part!

Join the Santa Run on 17 Dec

Santa Claus is coming to town! Or more specifically, a whole bunch of Santa’s are coming to Kent’s Canterbury campus, 17 December 12.30 at The Pavilion.

How? It’s simple really. Buy your own Santa outfit and join other students and staff members who will be running around campus to help raise money for charity this festive season.

So get yourself on the ‘nice’ list this Christmas by signing up today and give a little to those in need while getting active with your mates at the same time.

Spaces are limited so jingle that change all the way to the Sports Centre and sign up today!

£5 entry (includes a donation to War Child).

Conference on ‘Fact/Value Distinction’, 16-17 Jan

Dr Lubomira Radoilska (Philosophy) and Dr Kelli Rudolph (Classics) are organising a conference entitled ‘The Fact/Value Distinction: Contemporary and Classical Perspectives’ with generous support from the Mind Association, Aristotelian Society, Analysis Trust, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KIASH), and Kent’s Centre for Reasoning.

The facts-value distinction animates significant debates about the nature and scope of inquiry in contemporary analytic philosophy and in the social, natural, and medical sciences. In addition, it clarifies the ultimate ambitions of a theory by asking whether it is an explanatory or a normative project.

This conference addresses the extent to which explanatory and normative objectives should be conceived as mutually exclusive, as the initial question implies or, alternatively, as intimately and helpfully intertwined.

Classical approaches to the scope and nature of inquiry conceive of the relationship between facts and values in a related but distinctive way, thus providing a fresh perspective on contemporary debates.

By employing complementary systematic and historical approaches to this central issue, the conference will offer a new framework for constructive dialogue and exploration of the fact-value distinction across disciplines.

Student volunteers spread Christmas joy

In our 50th anniversary year, University of Kent students are doing even more to support charities and local volunteering organisations.

In the countdown to Christmas, Kent Union has donated an amazing total of 49 Christmas shoeboxes packed with gifts to be given to disadvantaged children through Smile International.

Many kind donations of presents by students, staff, societies, sports teams and local businesses were received and 40 Kent Union volunteers joined the ‘Give Volunteering a Go’ sessions to decorate and pack the shoeboxes.

Kent Law Campaign Student Group’s 2015 calendars on sale now

The Kent Law Campaign Student Group (KLCSG) is selling charity calendars in aid of the Kent Law Campaign and invites staff and students of the University to buy them to help a good cause.

The KLCSG, which is supporting the University to raise funds for the Kent Law Campaign – £5million fundraising project to build a new home for the Kent Law Clinic and the Law School’s Mooting Programme – sought sponsorship from a local printing company to fund the calendars. Stunning photographs of campus and Canterbury have been used as the feature images for each month.

Billy Ng, Vice-Chair of the KLCSG, said: ‘Our committee is extremely grateful to Headley Brothers Ltd for generously sponsoring our calendars for the third year running. We are really impressed with the final product and cannot thank them enough. We hope that this initiative will help us to raise even more money for this important charitable cause.’

The calendars are priced at just £2 each or three for £5. Please email Billy to buy yours!

Images from the calendar are available to view on the Kent Law Campaign’s Facebook page.

Student Projects Grant Scheme

In our 50th anniversary year, we aim to celebrate the achievements of our students and inspire them to excel both personally and academically. The Student Projects Grant Scheme provides the stepping stone to achieve this goal.

The Grant Scheme is funded by the Kent Opportunity Fund, which supports students by providing scholarships and bursaries to those experiencing financial hardship, and projects to enhance personal and professional skills. The Grant Scheme encourages individuals to bid for funds to run projects that will enhance the student experience and employability of Kent students.

The total amount available to fund student projects in the 2014/15 academic year is £65,000, with grants of up to a maximum of £5,000. Applications are welcome from student groups in Kent Union, departments, faculties and schools across the University, including our campuses at Canterbury and Medway, our centre in Tonbridge and our European centres in Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome.

The Student Projects Grant Scheme will be open for applications on 6 October 2014, and all submissions must be made by the deadline of 19 December 2014. To find out more, see the Kent Opportunity Fund webpages.

Celebrating staff

Kent celebrates its staff in many ways and was even recognised for its staff practices through its top rankings in the 2014 Times Higher Education (THE) Best University Workplace Survey. In addition to formal annual promotion and salary award schemes that are in place for all staff, the University recognises the efforts and achievements of staff across five different University level schemes through a series of annual staff awards events.

Each of these schemes recognise different elements of the staff experience:

Green Impact awards focuses on the desire to make a difference locally and globally through our environmental efforts
Innovation and Enterprise awards help staff to make a difference by engaging with and supporting our community
Learning and Development awards encourage the support of a continuous learning environment for all our staff
Learning & Teaching awards recognise the importance of our staff efforts in creating a positive student learning experience
VC’s Cup awards emphasise the value of maintaining a healthy work environment through team efforts

Additionally, as part of the work taking place through the 50^th anniversary celebrations, a new scheme and event celebrating Research will be added during the current academic year.

Celebrating and inspiring a positive staff experience is not just a one-off activity. We are in the process of developing case studies from individual schools/departments to share good practices that are also underway with a view to encouraging all to consider how they acknowledge the efforts of their staff. Each of the schemes are different and has been created to fit the particular working environment and context. The University of Kent’s goal is to continue to grow and share these good practices to enable us all to continue to be inspired by the excellent work of our staff.

Does your School or Department have a good practice case study of a staff awards or recognition scheme that you would like to share with others? Please get in touch with Cindy Vallance.

ICE Showcase Event: Innovate for the Future

Celebrating the University’s 50th Anniversary, Kent Innovation & Enterprise welcomes you to the ICE Showcase Event: Innovate for the Future. The event takes place on Thursday 15 January, from 12-5pm in Woolf College, Canterbury campus.

Join us for lunch and an afternoon of innovation, creativity and enterprise, with inspiring speakers, networking opportunities and an Innovation Zone showcasing the University’s academic excellence and world-leading research.

Limited tickets are available so please register to this free event by clicking on the REGISTER NOW button on the link below before Thursday 18 December.

For more information please visit http://www.kent.ac.uk/enterprise/events/ice2015.html

National Teaching Fellowship Scheme

The Higher Education Academy has announced the 2015 round of National Teaching Fellowships. Details of the criteria and selection process can be found at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/professional-recognition/awards/national-teaching-fellowship-scheme-ntfs. The University can nominate up to three individuals for these highly competitive awards, and the closing date for complete nominations is 14 January 2015.

If you would like to be considered for nomination by the University, please forward to me a brief (maximum 3 pages) explanation of how you meet the NTFS criteria, and the evidence you can provide in support of your nomination. Note that each criterion carries equal weight in the selection process. Clearly we are working to a very tight schedule, so expressions of interest must be received by 4pm on Tuesday 16 December 2014.

Dr Janice Malcolm, Reader in Higher Education, Centre for the Study of Higher Education

50th anniversary pop-up shop – get Christmas all wrapped up!

There are just 14 shopping days left until Christmas!

Don’t worry if you haven’t got Christmas all wrapped up yet as the 50th anniversary pop-up shop arrives at the Canterbury campus.On sale are the incredibly cute Kent bunnies, warm winter onesies and our ‘I am Kent’ hoodies. You can’t buy these anywhere else so this is a great chance to treat yourself or get a limited edition 50th anniversary gift for that special someone.The pop-up shop will be outside Essentials today (Wednesday 10 December) from 12-3pm.