Yearly Archives: 2015

Kent Hospitality catering – University Business feature

Keith Williams, Head of Trading, has been interviewed for the May issue of University Business magazine in which he discusses Kent Hospitality’s award winning catering outlets.

Keith describes how we retain our customer base not just through pricing strategies and loyalty offers, but the quality of the food, outstanding customer service and the extended service periods.

Menu variety and providing outlet choice are also key to adding customer value for both Kent and the University of Sheffield (who also feature in the article). Keith Williams is emphatic about its importance: This has been our focus for a decade to create unique spaces across the campus, both to provide for the different types of experience that our varying student demographics are after, and to avoid duplication so that we offer a huge amount of choice.

The four page article can be read in the University Business online magazine (titled Fickle Friends).

For those with hard copies of the magazine, the article is pages 45-48.

Student Meditation Mix

The School of Music and Fine Art in collaboration with the Counselling and Wellbeing team and the Student Learning Advisory Service have produced a CD of guided meditations and original compositions to help students deal with stress and anxiety.

This is available free online for students to download http://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/currentstudents/meditationmix2015.html . There are also a number of facilitated group sessions planned to help students during the run up to exams.

For more information on meditation and mindfulness please contact the Wellbeing Team http://www.kent.ac.uk/studentwellbeing/contact/index.html

Staff access to SDS has changed

You now need to access Staff SDS using the following link – https://sds-staff.kent.ac.uk.

By splitting the staff and student sections of SDS, we are improving the security of the sensitive data that SDS holds.  If you use SDS on the web from off campus, you will need to use the VPN (Virtual Private Network) service to establish a connection to the Kent network each time you want to access SDS from off campus.

Further information and instructions on how to setup VPN can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/isnews/staff-access-to-sds-has-changed/

Equalities Networks Event at Medway

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) team would like to invite colleagues to join us for our first Equalities Networks Event, which will be held at the Medway campus on Wednesday 20 May.

The event will provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about EDI at the University, liaise with key figures involved in running staff networks, find out about their work and key projects and discover how to become involved in supporting EDI development at Kent.

There will be representatives from the: LGBT Staff Network, Women’s Network, Disability Staff Network, Chaplaincy service and the EDI Network.

There will be an opportunity to hear from each group, in a brief round table format as well as lots of opportunities to ask questions and to exchange ideas.

The event will take place 2-4pm in Rochester Board Room. Refreshments will be provided.

All staff are welcome to attend, please do feel free to drop in and join us

Global Realism Conference, 24-25 April

This Friday (24 April) sees the start of a 2-day conference on `Global Realism: Capital, Empire, and the Politics of Form`convened by Dr Bashir Abu-Manneh from the School of English. Contributors include Joe Cleary, Valentine Cunningham, Pam Morris and many others. It promises to be an important and compelling event.

Details of the programme and instructions for registration can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/research/conferences/globalrealism.html

All welcome.

New Colyer-Fergusson gallery opens

The new Colyer-Fergusson Gallery space has opened, and is currently hosting an exhibition by Faversham-based photographer, Hope Fitzgerald, entitled ‘#walkSwaleMedway.’

The exhibition runs the length of the first-floor balcony in the Colyer-Fergusson building, and is the first of two satellite events linked to the performance of ‘Tokaido Road’ which comes to the Gulbenkian in May. #walkSwaleMedway comprises fifty-three images, matching the fifty-three prints of Hiroshige’s ‘Stations of the Tokaido Road,’ and explores similar themes of travel and landscape, as a photographic response to walking the area around Medway and the Swale in Kent.

#walkSwaleMedway runs until Saturday 2 May during normal Colyer-Fergusson opening hours, and admission is free. Find out more about the installation in an interview with Hope Fitzgerald on the Music department blog here: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/music-matters/2015/04/01/one-step-at-a-time-an-interview-with-photographer-hope-fitzgerald/

Students try their hand at Forensic Science

On Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th April 2015 students from Kent and London attended the School of Physical Sciences Forensic Science Weekend held at the University of Kent. The event is designed to introduce students to the various aspects of Forensic Science via engaging lab based activities and lectures. On Saturday the students were introduced to crime scene analysis and evidence recovery, ballistics using a high powered air rifle and mini wind tunnel, and drug analysis. With help from colleagues in the School of Biosciences and Professor Bob Green the students had a DNA profiling lecture and workshop and Dr Emily Blake from the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research introduced Forensic Psychology. On Sunday students were set several challenges, one of which saw them learn the basics of facial recognition software EFIT-V, a facial composite system developed by academics within SPS which is currently used by the majority of UK police constabularies and in numerous other countries. Other challenges included recovering evidence from a crime scene and cross examining a forensics expert in a mock court. The overall winning team was a group of young women from Our Lady’s Convent High School in Hackney.

BSIS on the move!

The University’s Brussels School of International Studies moves to new purpose built facilities in April. We are looking forward to this new chapter in BSIS history and to welcoming you to the new premises.

From Monday 20 April, the Brussels School of International Studies will be located on the second floor of number 2a, Boulevard Louis Schmidt (Louis Schmidtlaan in Dutch) in the district of Etterbeek, very close to the joint campus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

For maps and directions, see http://www.kent.ac.uk/brussels/contact/location/maps_directions.html

Still time to register for Enterprise and Impact Training

Enterprise and Impact Training will run on Wednesday 29th April and Wednesday 6th May, and there is still time to register.

By attending this programme you will gain the knowledge, confidence and practical tools necessary to engage successfully in enterprise activities such as consultancy and collaborative funding streams.

You will also increase your potential to apply your expertise within industry, public sector and third sector organisations, and will learn about how enterprise and knowledge exchange activities can benefit your career.

The training, run by Kent Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) is recommended for academics and researchers, at any stage of their career, who would like to develop skills for enterprise activity and optimise their interactions with external organisations. It is also suitable for members of support staff that work at the interface between academia and external partners.

To sign up, please complete the booking form using the link below, bearing in mind that attendance at both modules is required.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/hr-learninganddevelopment/bookings/courses/index.html

If you have any questions or would like more information about the training please see visit the KIE website (https://www.kent.ac.uk/enterprise/university-staff/enterprise-training.html) or contact Miguel Alcalde, Faculty Liaison Officer on extension 4574 or email m.alcalde@kent.ac.uk.

University staff helping local business

The Head of Procurement, Don Bowman, has been working with the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce over the last year to improve the chances of local business securing work with the Public Sector, including the University itself. The focus has largely been on small and medium sized businesses (SME’s), two workshops have already been held, including presentations on how to win Public Sector business from Don Bowman.

On the 28th April, there will be an event, where over 100 SME’s will be in attendance, held at Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce in Ashford, with the aim of giving SME’s the opportunity to meet buyers from across the Public Sector in Kent. They will also be assisted in registering on portals to access Public Procurement opportunities. The University’s Procurement Team, the Head of Trading within Kent Hospitality and the Estates Maintenance Manager will be amongst those attending for the University, along with colleagues from other Kent based Public Sector organisations. The aim is to improve the opportunities open to Kent companies, it goes beyond helping them to win business just at the University, but also increases their understanding of Public Procurement rules and the opportunities that are out there if they know where to look and how to apply.

For further details please visit http://www.kentinvictachamber.co.uk/business-advice/business-support-in-medway/event-registration/?ee=134