Do you enjoy helping others to learn a language? Or would you like to meet students at Kent who can help improve a language you are currently learning? If so, you might be interested in joining Language Exchange with the Centre for English and World Languages.

Language Exchange is a Moodle based language community in which we encourage students to pair up and exchange information and knowledge of their respective cultures and languages. In support of this the Centre for English and World Language also host Language Exchange evenings once a term for students who are learning Mandarin, Russian, Japanese or Arabic to meet native speakers of their target language to socialise and practice speaking and listening.

If you would like to know more about Language Exchange and to sign up please visit http://www.kent.ac.uk/international-pathways/current-students/student-experience.html?tab=language-exchange.

To book a place on our Autumn Language Exchange evening please see https://kent.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/2015-autumn-language-exchange.

The new catering addition to the Canterbury campus, Hut8, opened last week in time for the hungry students descending on campus for Welcome Week.

Hut8, named after the building where Alan Turing worked at Bletchley Park, is located at Turing College. This new outlet offers three eateries in one food-court style space, including pizza, fish and chips and flame-grilled BBQ items.

Open from 5pm, Hut8 offers you a choice to eat in the restaurant seating area, which includes a pool table and live sporting games on the big screen TVs.  Or you can take advantage of the delivered takeaway service straight to your campus accommodation. The Hut8 team can be seen whizzing round campus on bicycles across the campus making deliveries seven days a week, until late!

Have a look at the Hut8 menus and online takeaway information and keep up to date with special events on Hut8 Facebook page.

Don’t forget that there are over a dozen catering outlets on the Canterbury campus, with varying cuisines and different ordering options to suit all tastes. So whether you want to grab a quick coffee, order a sandwich to takeaway or have a sit down Tex-Mex dinner and catch up with friends, we have something for everyone.  For all the outlet menus and opening times, please see the catering website.

Following on from the hugely successful Welcome Week school disco, Mungo’s Massive will yet again be returning to Eliot dining hall for a Halloween spectacular on Friday 30th October.

Come dressed as your favourite ghoulish character for this lively yet morbidly themed event, and dance the night away to all manner of contemporary chart hits and old-school club classics.

Friday 30th October, Eliot College Dining Hall, 20.00 until 02.00, plus free entry all night!

Prepare for a lot of mass dancefloor zombie action

Around 20,000 Psychology Graduates will apply for a Clinical Psychology Doctorate in 2015. There are only 550 spaces. This means under 4% of applicants will be successful and, in many cases, this will not be the first year that they have applied.

University students; Asha Patel, Hannah Johns, Sophia Scholtes and Celine Portello know first-hand how difficult gaining a place on the Clinical Psychology doctorate course can be. With such fierce competition in Clinical Psychology, work experience carries as much weight as academic achievement, if not more.

The problem is that finding hands-on Psychology Work experience is not always easy, so these students decided to venture further afield to gain the crucial experience they needed, travelling to the Island of Sri Lanka to participate in a Mental Health Placement. For 5-12 weeks last year these young adults shared their skills at Psychiatric Hospitals and ran therapeutic activity sessions at centres for individuals with various specific needs. This placement was organised by SLV, a volunteer organisation founded in 2010 by Psychology Graduates in a similar position to Asha, Hannah, Sophia and Celine.

Mental Health Care in Sri Lanka is in its infancy. The stigma for those with Mental Health issues is still widespread, and with just one Psychiatrist for every 500,000 people, there is still a long way to go.  In the past 5 years, over 1000 Psychology students have joined SLV to dedicate their time to supporting people with mental health issues in Sri Lanka to reduce the care deficit by boosting the existing resources in place, and offering stimulating therapeutic activity sessions for service users during all stages of their recovery.

The SLV Mental Health Placement is partnered with the King’s College London Resource Centre for Trauma, Displacement and Mental Health. Asha, Hannah, Sophia and Celine were trained and supported by Sri Lankan Mental Health professionals to help equip them with the skills to work sensitively within the Sri Lankan culture, and in thoroughly under-resourced facilities and challenging environments.

Asha Patel- “I spent 6 weeks in Sri Lanka after graduating last summer and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I made some friends for life whilst out there and learnt a lot about mental health abroad and the way in which it is treated, something which I appreciated as my undergraduate course did not have a practical element. It was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to volunteer abroad and have the chance the travel around Sri Lanka.”

Celine Portello- “In this country and on the placement I learnt more than I ever could have imagined! I met wonderful people and discovered a completely other way of living, all of it surrounded by beautiful landscape and tasty food.”

Hannah Johns- “To anyone who is about to graduate in psychology and has some spare time before they start a job, or maybe they are unsure of what to do next, I highly recommend this for you. You get to explore a magnificent country at the same time as getting some truly hands on experience helping in hospitals and schools in a completely different culture to your own. Even if it doesn’t end up helping towards your career goal, believe me when I say that interviewers will be incredibly impressed! As well as working in Sri Lanka, I thoroughly enjoyed learning all about the incredibly different culture.”

Sophia Scholtes- “Joining SLV gave me the opportunity to gain relevant experience working in mental health, with a unique cultural perspective. To me it highlighted greatly the impact of stigmas towards patients coming into contact with mental health care. Among like-minded volunteers and locals, we aided at a variety of projects with children, youths, and adults. Besides hands-on work at the psychiatric facility and rehabilitation center, projects also involved supporting individuals with special needs and teaching English. Optional workshops and field trips, along with the opportunity of first-hand patient contact, gave valuable insight into psychological practice. Volunteering with SLV provided context for theory and research learnt during my degree and the chance to develop professional skills.”