It is with great sadness that we announce that former staff member and honorary graduate Professor Sir Bob Hepple died on 21 August, at the age of 81. We share our condolences with his wife Mary Coussey and the rest of his family.

Sir Bob devoted his life to the struggle for social justice. He was an activist, lawyer, teacher and scholar, who was admired and respected for his commitment to equality and democracy. Kent Law School recognised his extraordinary contribution by awarding him an honorary doctorate in July this year.

Sir Bob was active as a student leader opposing the introduction of racial discrimination in the universities of South Africa. Born in South Africa, he was also active in the South African Congress of Trade Unions, an ally of the African National Congress.

He participated in the underground struggle against apartheid and acted as a lawyer for Mandela and other leaders. He escaped to England in 1963 from the Rivonia trial, in which Mandela and others were sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2014, on the 20th anniversary of the new democracy, he was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Gold for his ‘exceptional contribution to the struggle for democracy and human rights’.

In England, he has practised as a barrister and employment judge and pursued an academic career in the Universities of Cambridge, Nottingham, Kent, and UCL, ending as Master of Clare College and Professor of Law in Cambridge. He is an acknowledged international expert and activist in the fields of equality, human rights and labour law.

He was Chair of the international human rights organisations, the European Roma Rights Centre and the Equal Rights Trust, of which was the Honorary President until his death. He was also Honorary President of the Industrial Law Society. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel (honoris causa) in 1996, a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003, and knighted for services to legal studies in 2004.

Sir Bob’s work was critical in shaping the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) and the Race Relations Act (1976), as well as subsequent British equality legislation including the Equality Act 2010. His most recent book, Equality: a New Legal Framework (2011, second edition 2014) is not only an appraisal of the current legislation, but a reflection on the past, present and future of equality law. Sir Bob was an inspiring example of a public intellectual, who combined a keen intellect with great humanity and kindness. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

Professor Judy Fudge
Kent Law School

Dr Mikkel Zangenberg, Lecturer in Danish Language and Culture from the Department of Comparative Literature, will be guest speaking at a forthcoming BBC Proms extra event to discuss Danish musician Carl Neilson.

Carl Neilson was a violinist and conductor, and recognised as one of Denmark’s greatest musicians. This year sees the centenary of Neilson’s birth, and Mikkel will be exploring the life and work of Neilson alongside Professor Christopher Cook (Gresham College), Professor Daniel Grimley (University of Oxford), and soloist Emily Beynon.

The event is free and open to all, and will be held 17.54 at the Royal College of Music on Tuesday 25 August.

There will also be a ticket-only performance of Neilson’s Flute Concerto, alongside Benjamin Britton’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Leo Janacek’s Sinfonietta, at 19.30 at the Royal Festival Hall the same evening.

For more details visit the event webpage.

Following the USS Employer Consultation Process earlier this year, you can now view a summary of the confirmed changes to the scheme which will take effect on 1 April 2016.

If you have any queries regarding the changes, please contact me or a member of the Pensions Team, Tarnia Craswell (x3601) or Alan Gazzard (x4767).

Please note: this does not affect SAUL members or eligible members

Wendy Green MCIPD | HR Project Manager| University of Kent Room 126, The Registry, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NZ

Tel: 01227 824982 | E-mail:  W.Green@kent.ac.uk | Web: http://www.kent.ac.uk/human-resources/

Professor Gordon Lynch, from the Department of Religious Studies, was interviewed by The Independent newspaper last week to preview a forthcoming exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood ‘On Their Own Britain’s Child Migrants’.

The exhibition will draw on Gordon’s research on child migration schemes that sent around 100,000 unaccompanied children from the UK to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries from 1869 until the early 1970s.

‘While presented as being in the best interests of the child, the schemes were also intended to build up the British Empire with “good British stock”,’ explains Gordon in the article, which was published last Friday 14 August.

The exhibition will run at the Museum of Childhood from 24 October 2015 to 12 June 2016.

Read the full article.

An article by Dr Anna Katharina Schaffner, Reader in the Department of Comparative Literature, features on the front cover of this week’s Times Literary Supplement (TLS), published today, 21 August 2015, and is the lead article in the editorial.

The article, entitled ‘Our Sweet Tooth’, is an extended review of The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets (OUP, 2015), edited by Darra Goldstein, which compiles work from historians, chemists, restaurateurs and neuroscientists, to explore sweets and sweetness from a variety of different perspectives.

‘It appears that our predilection for sweetness is, like the incest taboo, a cross-cultural phenomenon, and that it is ubiquitous and, in all likelihood, innate,’ explains Anna in the article.

Read the piece online, pages 10-12.

The new Tribal SITS data system will ‘go live’ in September 2016. This will replace our current SDS, both on the Cressida and the web interfaces.

The current SITS Admissions system will become part of this data system and the entire web interface will be known as KentVision.

From next August/September, students will log on to KentVision to enrol, choose modules, access their timetable, view personal information, access PG progress reviews, view their marks, etc.

From next September, staff will use KentVision to register students, view module diets, enter and view marks, approve PGR supervisory meetings, process scholarships, etc.

You are invited to attend the next all staff presentation on Thursday 10 September from 10.30am to 11.30am in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1*. This project briefing will include the current overall project status, a timeline reminder and work strand information, as well as a range of example KentVision pages. There will be a question and answer session at the end of the presentation.

More information on the project, including links to documents and presentations, can be found on the project webpages.

Alternatively for more information, please contact Nicci Place at: N.J.Place@kent.ac.uk 

*There will be a briefing at Medway during the autumn term