In May, Professor Peter Hacker, from the Department of Philosophy, will be speaking at ‘How the Light Gets In’, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival. Bringing together world-leading philosophers, scientists, musicians, and politicians for debates, talks and social events. This year’s programme examines the elements of reality that might turn out to be illusions, with speakers including Roger Penrose, Natalie Bennett, Paul Krugman, Fiona Shaw, Mike Skinner, Polly Toynbee, Lianne La Havas, Tariq Ali, Martin Creed and John Searle.

Peter Hacker will be joining Roger Penrose and Aubrey de Grey to debate ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’, as well as asking whether reason or emotion offers us ‘The Road to the Good Life’ with Mark Rowlands.

The festival will take place from 21-31 May 2015 at Hay-on-Wye and Kent staff and students can receive a 10% discount on event tickets, until midnight on 24 April, with a discount code. Please email secl@kent.ac.uk to obtain the code.

Further information about this year’s festival, including booking details, is available at: www.howthelightgetsin.org

Students involved in the Academic Peer Mentoring (APM) scheme attended an awards ceremony and lunch hosted by the Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) in UELT on Wednesday 8th April. The awards were presented to the mentors by Dr Louise Naylor, Director of UELT; Colleagues from participating Schools attended this event. Mentors from the School of Architecture, SECL and the School of Physical Sciences made presentations and showcased the impact this additional support has had on student achievement.

The APM scheme started in 2007 initially with three schools and 14 mentors and has now risen to 16 schools with 350 mentors as it has proved to be an excellent way of promoting student-centred learning. This initiative depends on student volunteers and is very much a student-led response – both undergraduates and postgraduates offer encouragement and academic advice to other students in the year below thus helping them to improve their performance.

The scheme has already developed a flexible pattern of working, as it evolves to respond to the needs of different Schools – one size does not fit all.

The APM experience shows that mentors themselves benefit greatly from the scheme as they deepen their understanding of the course content as well as enhance their employability skills. Both Kent Union and the Kent Enterprise and Hub recognize the importance of this mentoring role as this activity counts towards the KSCV and employability points scheme.

Worried about revision and exams?

Pick up some study guides on revision and exam techniques from the Student Learning Advisory Service in Canterbury (next to Santander) or in Medway (in the Gilligham building).

Kent professor Davina Cooper questions whether a general election can change the state in an essay published by UK think tank Compass.

The essay is one of 20 that feature in a publication called Finding our voice: making the 21st century state. The collection, edited by Gabriel Chanan and Neal Lawson for Compass, is authored by academics, MPs, writers and researchers from across the country who share a desire to influence progressive thinking within Labour policy.

Professor Cooper’s essay asks ‘Can a general election change the state?’ She considers whether more decentralised forms of governance should be created and whether a new Labour government might be willing to rethink its vision of what a state could be.

Collaborating with Professor Cooper on the theme of ‘reimagining the state’, policy adviser Tom Bentley goes on to develop the topic in an accompanying essay ‘A more open, devolved and plural state’.

Professor Cooper is a professor of law and political theory at Kent Law School. She has written books and articles on the state; her most recent book is Everyday Utopias: The Conceptual Life of Promising Spaces (2014). Tom Bentley is a writer and policy adviser who works with institutions around the world on how to learn more effectively.

The British Stand-Up Comedy Archive was launched at the University of Kent following the donation of the personal archive of the late (and brilliant) comedian Linda Smith, by her partner Warren Lakin. Now the archive has become a Beacon Project, receiving extra funding to celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary.

We are delighted that the first annual Linda Smith Lecture will be given by Mark Thomas, a friend and colleague of Linda and one of the most exciting and innovative political comedians working today.

The lecture is being held on Tuesday 12 May 2015 at 7:30pm at the Gulbenkian Theatre. The event is free, but tickets must be booked in advance.  For further information visit the Gulbenkian webpage.