Monthly Archives: February 2015

National Careers Week, 2-6 March

We have the following Careers and Employability events for you to attend.

To book your place email medwaycareers@kent.ac.uk

Monday 2 March

  • CV bootcamp for beginners, 1-2pm, PK017

Tuesday 3 March

  • Social media and networking for career success, 12-1pm, PK017
  • Getting the most out of the Employability & Volunteering Toolkit, 1-2pm, PK017

Wednesday 4 March

  • Searching for part-time work (please bring your CVs along), 12-1pm, PK017

Thursday 5 March

  • GradsKent drop-in, 12-1pm, Pilkington Building, ground floor
  • GradsKent: make yourself stand out, 1-2pm, PK017

Friday 6 March

  • Developing your career, 12-1pm, Blake Building, B028
  • Teaching – a focus on the PGCE and School Direct, 1-2pm, PK017

Further information on these events.

Turkey and Cyprus peace and stability conference

Dr Neophytos Loizides and Professor Feargal Cochrane of the School of Politics and International Relations have assisted in the organisation of and will be taking part in the ‘Turkey and Cyprus Regional Peace & Stability Conference’.

The conference will be held at USAK House in Ankara, Turkey on Saturday 28 February 2015.

It will map the current situation in Cyprus, address the threats from the on-going conflict escalation in the region and identify alternative routes towards a solution.

The keynote speakers of the event are two eminent statesmen, Former Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou and Former Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hikmet Çetin.

The event has been organised by Cyprus Academic Dialogue and has been co-sponsored by several organisations including the Diplomacy@Kent Beacon project, International Strategic Research Organisation (USAK), the Australian High Commission Nicosia, the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Australian Embassies in Ankara and Nicosia.

Kent receives double accolade for payment processing

Payment processing at the University and staff involved received a double accolade at the WPM Annual User Conference Awards 2015.

WPM are the process specialists and payment experts within the higher and further education sectors. The annual awards recognise the success of institutions and individuals who are achieving success with the WPM Payment Platform, and are developing payment acceptance best practice in the sector.

At the ceremony in Manchester, Neil Oliver, Assistant Director of Finance at the University, received an award to acknowledge his contribution over the years in engaging with other WPM users and hosting visitors wishing to learn about the University’s systems.

Holger Bollmann, Director at WPM said: ‘With so many fantastic examples of efficient and effective online payment acceptance in the HE and FE sector, it was extremely hard to recognise just a few standout individuals and institutions this year. I would like to wish warm congratulations to Neil for winning this award.’

The University also received an HE award nomination along with the Universities of the Arts London, Liverpool and Sheffield under the category of Payments Champion, which recognises institutions from the HE and the FE Sector making best use of their WPM systems and benefiting from their efficiencies.

Further information on WPM is available on their webpages: http://www.wpmeducation.com/

Professor Nuria Triana Toribio inaugural lecture

Professor Nuria Triana-Toribio from the Hispanic Studies Department will give her KIASH Inaugural lecture , ‘Spanish Film Cultures’ on Friday 13 March at 6pm in Grimond lecture Theatre 2.

No film comes about without a film culture to sustain it. Film cultures are the institutions, legislation, working practices and cultural actors that encourage some kinds of film and prove fallow ground for others. In Spain during the long transition to democracy from Franco’s dictatorship (1968-1978) a new film culture was built that distanced itself from the old. However, the transition in film, like the transition in politics, was more easily imagined than achieved. Elements of the old film culture persisted, even among the progressives, while film historians, signed up to the project of the new film culture, have been reluctant to acknowledge these vestigial traces, which have become the ‘bad objects’ of Spanish film studies. But as Ezra Pound once said, ‘you can’t know an era merely by knowing its best’. This lecture will consider the development of Spain’s dominant film culture since 1968 by examining one such bad object, the popular f ilm magazine Nuevo Fotogramas, long considered too frivolous to have played any serious part in the transition, in spite of the cosmopolitan outlook of its writers and editors.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Grimond Foyer.

Further details cab be found on the SECL website.

How Machiavellian was Machiavelli?

Professor Quentin Skinner will be asking this question at our annual Renaissance Lecture on Tuesday, 24th March 2015 at 6pm in Lecture Theatre 1, Grimond Building. All are welcome to attend, and there will be a wine reception afterwards.

One of Machiavelli’s aims in The Prince is to persuade us that the truly virtuoso prince should follow the virtues so far as possible, but should be ready to abandon them when this alternative seems necessary for the maintenance of the state. This is certainly what Machiavelli appears to claim about the virtue of justice. But if we turn to his examination of the so-called ‘princely’ virtues, especially clemency and liberality, we encounter a very different argument. Machiavelli complains that, in our corrupt modern world, some actions regarded as virtuous may in fact be instances of vice, while other actions condemned as vices may in fact be virtues. The aim of the lecture is to disentangle Machiavelli’s complex views about the relationship between virtue and political success.

Professor Quentin Skinner is Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London. His research centres on early-modern Europe, and one of his principal interests lies in the Italian Renaissance. He has published books on Machiavelli, on early Renaissance political painting, on ideals of civic virtue, and has edited Machiavelli’s The Prince.

Turner Prize winning artist, Jeremy Deller, to give Artist’s Talk

Visiting Artist Talks Series Jeremy Deller
5.30pm – 6.30pm, Thursday 26th February

Free. Everyone Welcome.

The Galvanising Shop. [Note; this is the new venue for the The Visiting Artist Talks Series]
The School of Music and Fine Art
University of Kent, Medway Campus
Chatham Historic Dockyard
Kent ME4 4TE

Jeremy Deller is an artist working across media with a multi-faceted practice that uniquely engages with our popular and traditional culture.
Winner of the Turner Prize (2004) and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale (2013).
Jeremy Deller is one of the UK’s most celebrated contemporary artists.

50 teams for 50 years – Canterbury Big Quiz

Join in the Canterbury Big Quiz at the University’s Sports Centre on Friday 24 April from 7pm.

Quiz organisers, the KM Group, are trying to recruit 50 teams to represent the University’s 50th anniversary. They’d love you to be part of it – and if you’re the top University team, you could win a special prize.

The KM Group is also offering University staff and students a special discount code, UKC50,  giving £10 off of team entry and free drink on arrival.  There will also be a bar provided by Barclay’s and a Ploughman’s supper to enjoy.

To book your table of eight, visit www.kmbigquiz.co.uk and select event booking, or click here.

Jobshop hosts its annual Recruitment Fair

On Tuesday 10 March, Jobshop will be hosting its annual Recruitment Fair in Darwin Conference Suite, from 12 noon to 3pm.

This year’s Recruitment Fair is even bigger with thirty exhibitors attending the event.  Students can come along to the event to meet a range of exhibitors including; Canterbury Historic River Tours, Charlton Athletic, RNLI, Holiday Extras, Saga Group and Kent Hospitality to name a few! The exhibitors are looking to recruit for part-time, temporary and seasonal staff, so there is something for everyone. For a full list of exhibitors please go to the kent union website.

As well as meeting a range of local and national organisations, students will also receive 5 Employability Points simply for attending the event!

To find out more, please go to the event’s Facebook page.

Dementia Friends Training

Alaina Willis is a third-year pharmacy student, last year she undertook Dementia Champion training through the Alzheimer’s Society which enabled her to deliver Dementia Friends training. Having already delivered two sessions to students she would like to offer this to university staff at Medway.

This is what Alaina says about the session: “Anybody can become a dementia Friend. It’s just about understanding a bit more about dementia and the small things you can do to help people with the condition. Dementia Friends learn a little about what it’s like to live with the condition and turns that understanding into action. This could be helping someone find the right change or being patient in a queue if someone is taking longer to pay. Every action counts. Being a Dementia Friend is not about volunteering or fundraising. To become a Friend you just need to attend a session which lasts about an hour.’

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The next session is on Thursday 12 March at 6pm in PK101. To sign up please email David Coldwell.

Pre-Election Health Policy Debate

The Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS) will be hosting a health policy debate prior to the 2015 General Election in May.

All the main local parties have been invited to send a Kent Parliamentary candidate to sit on a panel to take public questions and inform the audience what their policy plans could mean for the future of our health and social care.

This event will be taking place on Monday 20 April 2015 at 7pm in the Gulbenkian Theatre. It is free and open to all – no booking necessary.