The university’s publishing team are launching a new blog next academic year for the benefit of prospective students. Current Kent students can write about aspects of student, extra-curricular or academic life to really give prospective students an insight into life here at the university. The blog is a fantastic way to hone your writings skills, write about your experiences of being a student at Kent and offer invaluable insights for the benefit of others thinking of studying here.

For more information and to apply to be a student blogger, go to:  http://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/blog/index.html

With a £100 Amazon voucher up for grabs, Kent Sport has offered an extension on our survey for those who weren’t able to get their comments in on time. But that extension ends Wednesday 20 May!

Take the Kent Sport survey by Wednesday 20 May at 17.00 and you will be in the running to win a £100 Amazon voucher.

All are invited to enter, Kent Sport members, non-members, staff and students to complete the survey.

If you have any queries regarding the survey, please speak to reception or email sportsenquiries@kent.ac.uk.

Join University staff for a singles tennis tournament on Saturday 30 May from 13.00 to 17.00 hosted by Kent Sport. It’s free to enter!

Contact our Sports Development by Wednesday 27 May stating your playing ability (beginning, intermediate or advance).

Email sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk to book your place.

Did you know May is National Walking Month? Kent Sport and Physical Activity Service have organised a ‘midday mile’ on Wednesday 20 May at 12.00 for anyone interested in a simple mile walk around campus.

This is also part of Kent’s Walking Challenge which takes place throughout May. The challenge is open to anyone and those signed up to Kent’s Workplace Challenge can log points for the walk!

Meet a member of the Sports Development team at one of the six meeting points:
1. Darwin
2. The Gulbenkian
3. Rutherford College
4. The Plaza (in front of Essentials)
5. Keynes College
6. Sports Centre

Just turn up and go!

The University will mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) at both Canterbury and Medway Campuses on Friday 15th May 2015.

The event will include the now traditional flying of the rainbow flag above the Templeman Library at the Canterbury campus and for the first time the rainbow flag will also be flown at the Medway Campus. The rainbow flag has been the international symbol for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities and social movements around the world since the 1970s.

Members of the University’s LGBT Staff Network will be on hand at a stall based in the Central Plaza, opposite the Essentials Campus Shop, to distribute information about the day and its importance and also to answer any questions about the work of the network and support available for LGBT Members of the University community. All are welcome to join in with the event and show their support and the stall will be open 12.00 -2.00pm

Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, who is the university’s equality and diversity champion for LGBT issues, said: ‘The University is proud to once again be marking IDAHOT with celebrations at our Canterbury and Medway Campuses. This is a very important event to raise awareness of the issues still facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the workplace and worldwide.’

More information about the work of the LGBT Staff Network is available at http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/lgbtstaff/

The Happiness Project is a year-long series of celebratory events to present an academic approach to the idea of happiness.The School of Anthropology and Conservation are delighted to welcome Dr. Neil Thin from the University of Edinburgh to deliver his talk on Thursday 14th May 2015, in Grimond Lecture Theatre 3 at 17.30 for refreshments (18.00 for lecture).

Worldwide, the public recognition of the importance of happiness research has soared in the past decade. The pursuit of scientifically credible intertemporal and international population-level comparisons has resulted in excessive emphasis on crude numerical representations of happiness. Arguably, this has the paradoxical effect of making happiness research unscientific, since respondents are forcing endlessly uncertain and elusive self-evaluations into absurdly bold and simplified self-presentations. Will a new, more mature phase of happiness research embrace more complex, holistic, biographical, and culturally embedded accounts of happiness such as those provided by anthropologists? Will anthropology respond by mainstreaming systematic attention to happiness throughout the discipline, or just by developing a minor sub-discipline of happiness research?

For more information please visit the School of Anthropology and Conservation website.

Displacement, disability and sex addiction: three interwoven stories from characters on the margins of society are explored in Cardboard Citizens’ Benefit. With the Welfare State prominently on the agenda in the wake of the General Election, this new play explores the lives of three job-seekers and the pressures their status puts on them and those around them. In the second part of the evening, using Forum Theatre, the audience is invited to join the debate to look at strategies for the characters which might lead to a better outcome – both in the world of the play and in society at large.

Benefit is directed by Cardboard Citizens’ Artistic Director Adrian Jackson and features a cast drawn from Cardboard Citizens members, all of whom have experienced homelessness. English graduate Rosa is haunted by the history of her Chilean family, Craig suffers from a sex addiction that is destroying his relationship and Patrick is rendered near-speechless by his inability to understand the Kafkaesque world into which he is thrust seeking support. By telling the stories of these individual true-to-life struggles, Benefit looks at the impact of austerity and asks how we can best deal with the world we are now in.

Tickets available from Gulbenkian from £7-£12.