Wanted – singers and musicians to join the School of Music and Fine Art for a concert in The Royal Dockyard Church.

The University of Kent Choir and Orchestra (Medway) invites staff, students, alumni and the local community to join them to take part in a festive concert in the beautiful Royal Dockyard Church on Wed 14 December, from 19.30-21.00.

Music will include a performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols for Baritone Solo, Chorus and Orchestra.  Rehearsals will be Wednesdays 17.00-19.30 at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, starting 28 September. To take part, please email Dr Ben Curry b.curry@kent.ac.uk  (Orchestral players must be at least grade 6 standard).

The Staff Connect Steering Group met last week and considered the implications of a planned autumn launch. It was decided that in light of a number of factors, the scheduled launch date should target January 2017.

This decision takes account of business as usual priorities that go hand-in-hand with the start of a new academic year, when the focus of our work is on the arrival of new students and many new colleagues.

It also reflects a belief that we can better ensure that staff are prepared for the launch of the system in term time, rather than over the summer break when many of you may have periods of leave.

Despite the new target, the work of the project continues unabated, with final user acceptance testing (UAT) of the Staff Connect system currently being completed by Payroll and Pensions, and now being overseen by an experienced UAT manager.

To ensure that staff feel confident using Staff Connect, a number of support resources have already been developed by the Project team and are currently being tested by members of the Staff Connect Advisory Group. In addition to these, all staff will have the opportunity to attend one of many demonstrations of the system that will be offered throughout the autumn term.

As well as these demos, the Project team will continue to provide updates on the work of Staff Connect over the summer and into the autumn term.

Should you have any questions, do contact Su Westerman, Staff Connect Employee Engagement and Communications Manager.

Sent in by s.westerman@kent.ac.uk

On Thursday 26 May, a team of Kent Union staff and student officers cycled over 200 miles to Paris, to raise money for the Access to Activities Fund.

The fund allows the Union to support University of Kent students from disadvantaged backgrounds, or who have a disability, enabling them to participate in their sports clubs, societies and wider student activities.

Kent Union volunteers and the Activities team do some fantastic work, and the fund aims to allow as many people as possible to have access to these opportunities.

In the lead up, many members of staff also took part in the 24 Hour Cycle Challenge, pedalling through the day and night, again, to support the fund.

The final total raised for the Access to Activities scheme was £4189.05, which will enable Kent Union to support many more students this year.

Congratulations to everybody who took part and a huge thank you to everyone who supported the event.

Sent in by C.Parris@kent.ac.uk.

A Kent conference exploring the relationship of time to law and regulation will be making innovative use of Lego to help participants visualise key concepts.

The Lego will feature in a plenary session entitled ‘Visualising Law and Time’ during the final international conference of Kent Law School’s Regulating Time network to be held on Kent’s Canterbury campus from Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 September.

The three-year network, funded by the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council, comprises an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in the relationship between law and dominant concepts of time. It is co-ordinated by Kent Law School Reader in Law Dr Emily Grabham and Dr Sian Beynon-Jones, a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York.

Kent Law School Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris, who will lead the innovative plenary session with Lego, said:

‘Let’s say I am facing a problem in my current research/administration/teaching project, and I want to get the advice of my colleagues. I can build a model for my colleagues of where my project is now, explaining what each piece represents and how it relates to the other pieces. The building process, including the selection of the pieces and where to put them, will force me to think very precisely about my project, but in terms that are still accessible to others. I learn new things about how my project fits together, and I offer a shared point of reference or vocabulary to my colleagues.’

The conference, The New Legal Temporalities: Discipline and Resistance across Domains of Time, will explore time’s fraught relationship with law, governance and ordering: the use of time in projects of discipline, the significance of time to resistance, and the creation of new temporal horizons.

Sent in by A.P.Shieber@kent.ac.uk.

The next meeting of the Kent Enterprise and Impact Network (KEIN) will take place on Tuesday 28 June, 12.15-14.00, Cornwallis North West Seminar Room 5 on Canterbury campus,

KEIN, a network jointly created by Kent Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) and Learning and Development (L&D), brings together academics, researchers, technicians and other members of staff interested in collaboration, innovation and enterprise activities, maximising the impact of their work, and tapping into alternative sources of funding.

For this meeting, Dr Jennifer Hiscock from the School of Physical Sciences will be sharing her ongoing engagement with external organisations and Dr Lisa Harper from KIE Commercialisation Team will also be sharing tips on when and why to protect your intellectual property and when to consider a spin out option.

All University staff are welcome to attend. To reserve your place at the session including a free light lunch; please email ldev@kent.ac.uk and specify any dietary or access requirements.

If you would like to come along for the presentations only, you are welcome to turn up on the day without booking a place and feel free to bring your lunch with you.

After a networking lunch, there will be two short presentations with Q&A, and then an informal discussion. If you have any enterprise ideas or ideas prompted by the presentations, this is also an opportunity to share these and hear about how the University can provide support.

For any questions or queries about the meeting, please email enterprise@kent.ac.uk or phone 01227 827376.

Sent in by enterprise@kent.ac.uk.

Library 24/7 opening ends

This Friday, the Templeman Library’s 24/7 opening ends and vacation opening hours start.

The Library closes at 00:00 midnight on Friday 17 June.

Saturday 18 June: Templeman East closed in the morning

Templeman West is open 08:00 – 00:00 midnight.

Templeman East opens at 12:00 on Saturday. It’s closed in the morning for electrical work. If you need books from Templeman East, you’ll need to get them before midnight on Friday or wait till after 12:00 on Saturday.

Opening hours: 19 June – 25 September

By popular demand, the Library’s vacation opening hours are even longer than last year:

 08:00 – 00:00 midnight, 7 days a week. You’ll need a KentOne card to enter after 18:00.

The Library is closed on Bank Holiday Monday 29 August.

IT and Library Support Desk, Welcome Desk, Loan Desk and Templeman East Help Point

• Monday – Friday: 09:00 – 18:00
• Saturday: 12:00 – 18:00
• Sunday: closed

The Library is self-service outside these times.

Templeman Library Development

There will be major reconstruction work in the centre of the Library over the summer. It’s happening in the vacation to avoid disturbing people in teaching and exam times.

It will be noisy in the Library at times. If you need somewhere quieter to work, try:

• areas of Templeman West and East furthest away from the centre
• study hubs around campus. Oaks study hub is open 24/7 with KentOne card access all summer

Templeman East outside lift

The platform lift outside Templeman East isn’t working at the moment. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, and we’re trying to find a solution as soon as possible.

If you have problems accessing Templeman East, you can:

• contact the Library Welcome Desk to make alternative arrangements
• order books to Templeman West

Borrowing books in the vacation

Borrowing over the summer is the same as in term, so that books stay accessible to everyone who needs them.

If you’re away from Kent, remember:

• Loan periods are the same, so keep renewing your books when they’re due
• If someone recalls a book you have, you’ll  need to return it
• If you have any problems, contact the Loan Desk as soon as possible: email lendingenquiries@kent.ac.uk or phone 01227 82 3572

More information: your vacation borrowing checklist

Using other university libraries

If you’re a Kent student or staff, you can use other university libraries around the UK and Ireland through SCONUL Access. You’ll need to register a few days before you visit.

From Monday 23 May up to 27 May 2016, 19 MBA students from Hong Kong Baptist University visited Kent Business School to take part in a short-study cross-cultural programme on business management in an international context from an European perspective.

The short-study programme, which tapped into growing trade links between China and the UK, was built on KBS’s academic expertise and complemented with field trips to several UK companies in Kent, a visit to the London Stock Exchange Market and a talk by MEP Richard Ashworth on UK’s international trade relations, with special attention to the Brexit-discussion.

The students were unanimous in their praise for the programme: all appreciated the new insights obtained when visiting UK companies and learning about the Western trading culture, political developments within the EU, operational practices and work ethos.

Class representative Jun Fang wrote in a Thank You email that: ‘…. everyone of us has cherished every minute we’ve had with you, to try to deepen our understanding and reflect it to our realities, except for that we never felt it to be enough’.

KBS staff and students in turn were very impressed with the group’s academic standards and open and engaging demeanour. Lasting friendships were formed during the hugely successful social evening held in Canterbury, where the students showed their traditional Chinese dress and performed a well-known Chinese folk song ‘Jasmine’.

KBS is looking at offering the cultural exchange programme to other universities in SE Asia and planning the development of a similar programme at the Hong Kong Baptist University for its own MBA students from 2017 onwards. ‘Understanding each other’s culture is the basis for successful trade. KBS can help to establish lasting business relationships across continents’ says Martin Meyer, the School Director.

For further information about our portfolio of executive education programmes for international MBA students, please contact External Services at KBS by email (KBSbusiness@kent.ac.uk) or tel:  +44 (0) 1227 824068.

Kent academics are invited to attend a conference on migration and refugee law taking place on our Canterbury campus during Refugee Week from Monday 20 June to Friday 24 June.

The Migration and Refugee Law Conference 2016  has been organised by the European Law Student Association (ELSA) Kent with support, and partial funding, from Kent Law School. ELSA Kent is a local group of ELSA, the world’s largest law student and young lawyer network which spans 43 countries and consists of 40,000 members.

The conference aims to contribute to the promotion of a more ‘human’ view of the refugee crisis and includes sessions with local charities Samphire and Migrant Help. Lecture topics to be delivered by staff from Kent Law School and Kent Law Clinic include: ‘From Asylum to Management: a historical genealogy of asylum and refugium’ (by Dr Thanos Zartaloudis); ‘Migration and Human Rights’ (by Sian Lewis-Anthony); and ‘Permanent residence: Permanent Problem?’ (by Graham Tegg).

The penultimate day of the conference (Friday 24 June) coincides with the expected announcement of the result of the Brexit referendum in the UK and there will be a discussion of the impact of the results led by a panel comprised of EU law experts Dr Tobias Kliem and Martin Hedemann-Robinson.

Conference sessions will be held in GLT2 from 10.-00 to 12.00 and from 13.00 to 15.00 daily, with a buffet lunch from 12.00 to 13.00. All are welcome – a full copy of the timetable is available to view at: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/law-news/files/2016/06/Timetable-of-Migration-and-Refugee-Law-Conference.pdf