Yearly Archives: 2015

50 teams for 50 years – Canterbury Big Quiz

Join in the Canterbury Big Quiz at the University’s Sports Centre on Friday 24 April from 7pm.

Quiz organisers, the KM Group, are trying to recruit 50 teams to represent the University’s 50th anniversary. They’d love you to be part of it – and if you’re the top University team, you could win a special prize.

The KM Group is also offering University staff and students a special discount code, UKC50,  giving £10 off of team entry and free drink on arrival.  There will also be a bar provided by Barclay’s and a Ploughman’s supper to enjoy.

To book your table of eight, visit www.kmbigquiz.co.uk and select event booking, or click here.

Jobshop hosts its annual Recruitment Fair

On Tuesday 10 March, Jobshop will be hosting its annual Recruitment Fair in Darwin Conference Suite, from 12 noon to 3pm.

This year’s Recruitment Fair is even bigger with thirty exhibitors attending the event.  Students can come along to the event to meet a range of exhibitors including; Canterbury Historic River Tours, Charlton Athletic, RNLI, Holiday Extras, Saga Group and Kent Hospitality to name a few! The exhibitors are looking to recruit for part-time, temporary and seasonal staff, so there is something for everyone. For a full list of exhibitors please go to the kent union website.

As well as meeting a range of local and national organisations, students will also receive 5 Employability Points simply for attending the event!

To find out more, please go to the event’s Facebook page.

Dementia Friends Training

Alaina Willis is a third-year pharmacy student, last year she undertook Dementia Champion training through the Alzheimer’s Society which enabled her to deliver Dementia Friends training. Having already delivered two sessions to students she would like to offer this to university staff at Medway.

This is what Alaina says about the session: “Anybody can become a dementia Friend. It’s just about understanding a bit more about dementia and the small things you can do to help people with the condition. Dementia Friends learn a little about what it’s like to live with the condition and turns that understanding into action. This could be helping someone find the right change or being patient in a queue if someone is taking longer to pay. Every action counts. Being a Dementia Friend is not about volunteering or fundraising. To become a Friend you just need to attend a session which lasts about an hour.’

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The next session is on Thursday 12 March at 6pm in PK101. To sign up please email David Coldwell.

Pre-Election Health Policy Debate

The Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS) will be hosting a health policy debate prior to the 2015 General Election in May.

All the main local parties have been invited to send a Kent Parliamentary candidate to sit on a panel to take public questions and inform the audience what their policy plans could mean for the future of our health and social care.

This event will be taking place on Monday 20 April 2015 at 7pm in the Gulbenkian Theatre. It is free and open to all – no booking necessary.

SSPSSR alumni careers day and drinks reception

Our final SSPSSR Careers Insights day is all about our alumni. Join us to hear how their degrees with SSPSSR has helped them to get their dream jobs and get their top tips for getting those jobs!

Join us afterwards for drinks and nibbles.

Date: Wednesday 25 February

Presentations: 1 to  4pm in Darwin Conference Suite

Drinks reception: 4 to 7pm in Darwin Conference Suite

All welcome!

For more information or to book your space go to the alumni website.

Keeping Canterbury clean

Councillor Terry Westgate joined forces with Kent Union student volunteers and local residents to litter pick around the city. A group of eight Kent Union volunteer, six members of the community, including Councillor Terry Westgate battled the elements in a bid to tidy up the residential area at the bottom of Eliot footpath.

The volunteering project, organised by the Students’ Union at the University, was a great success with a grand total of 16 bags of rubbish collected! Tom Abbott Kent Union Volunteer Projects Coordinator: “The group has made a real and visible difference to the appearance of the area. Our volunteers are a real asset to the community and we really appreciate all the hard work they put in to keep the community clean, for all residents.”

Kent Union Volunteer Ryan Bates said: ‘It’s good to do something positive for the community, and it makes a nice break from working on a dissertation all day.” Kent Union Volunteer Leon Williams added: “It makes a nice break from working on a dissertation all day!’

More photographs of the volunteers at work can be seen on the Kent Union website.

Embodied knowledge research

Chris Shilling, Professor of Sociology, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, has been appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, until the end of the 2017-2018 academic year. During this period, Chris will be working on an inter-disciplinary, multi-national project funded by the Swedish Research Council on Embodied Knowledge with Professor Leif Ostman and other members of the team.

 

K-MOOCs Beacon Project event

Recordings of the K-MOOCs Beacon Project special event, ‘MOOCs and beyond: Exploring the opportunities for Kent’ are available for University staff on KentPlayer – see the K-MOOCs website for details or, if preferred, click on a direct link to the KentPlayer recordings.

The event was held on Tuesday 10 February  at the Unit for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to explore the potential value of MOOCs for the University of Kent and the possible wider impact, drawing on the experience and expertise of leading MOOC providers.

A capacity audience enjoyed excellent and thought-provoking presentations from our external speakers – W Michael McCracken (Georgia Institute of Technology), Helena Gillespie (University of East Anglia), and Amy Woodgate (University of Edinburgh) – alongside the background and latest updates on our own K-MOOCs project from Mark O’Connor (UELT) and Simon Thompson (School of Computing). Following the presentations, we held a lively and enlightening panel discussion and Q&A session.

Picture shows panel members at the event (from left: W Michael McCracken, Helena Gillespie, Amy Woodgate and Simon Thompson).

Learning & Development Awards Ceremony

The 2015 Learning and Development Awards Ceremony is taking place this week, on Thursday 26 February. The Ceremony provides an opportunity to celebrate the learning and development achievements of members of staff and to recognise the funding and other support provided by the University.

Due to the large number of award recipients attending this year’s event, unfortunately we will not be taking any further bookings from today (23 February 2015). Therefore, if you received an invitation letter but have not replied, unfortunately you will not now be able to book a place as the final arrangements are now taking place.

To avoid disappointment, please note that we will not be able to accommodate staff who turn up on the day with their certificate without having returned the reply slip.

We will be posting a full list of awards and also a selection of the photos taken at the Awards Ceremony on the Learning and Development website, following the event.

New centre focusing on Early Christianity

The recently inaugurated Centre for Early Christianity and its Reception has now launched its new website.

At Kent, there exists a substantial focus of multidisciplinary interest in early Christianity from its beginnings until Late Antiquity, including the exploration of its reception, which has been further strengthened by recent appointments of new staff, as well as building on those already in post and graduate students. The general interdisciplinary setting of the School of European Culture and Languages (SECL) provides an opportunity to develop a highly visible research community at the university over the coming years, hosted under the Centre.

The director of the new centre is Professor Karla Pollmann, Head of Classical & Archaeological Studies and Deputy Head of SECL. The Centre is the sixth research centre currently based within SECL, joining centres for Heritage, Language and Linguistics, Late Antique Archaeology, Modern European Literature, and Reasoning, which combine to create an active and energetic research community.