If you’re teaching in the Spring Term, don’t forget to submit your CLA scan requests!

The Christmas Concert will be taking place on Wednesday 14 December, 19.30 at the Royal Dockyard Church, Historic Dockyard Chatham.

The concert programme includes Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols for Baritone Solo, Chorus and Orchestra. This work will form the centre piece of a concert celebrating music with a festive flavour in a range traditions performed by the University of Kent Choir and Orchestra (Medway).

Vybarr Cregan-Reid, Reader in English and Environmental Humanities in the School of English and author of the acclaimed book Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human, will be joined by Lauren Elkin at the Rose Lane branch of Waterstones in Canterbury on Wednesday 7 December at 6.30pm. Vybarr, whose book was published earlier this year, has recently appeared at both the Folkestone Book Festival and the Hay Festival Winter Weekend. Lauren will be discussing her book Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London which was recently selected as Radio 4 Book of the Week. Tickets to the talk, ‘The Poetry of Motion‘, can be purchased for £3 in store. Both authors’ books will be available to purchase on the night.

About Footnotes
Running is not just a sport. It can be something magical, a way to recover some of the joy that modern life increasingly denies us as we spend our times connected to our phones, emails and social media.
When Vybarr Cregan-Reid set out to discover why running meant so much to so many, he began a journey which would take him throughout Britain, Europe and the States, to the world’s most advanced running laboratories and research centres, to discover more about the history of the places we know and how we use them. Using debates in literature, philosophy and biology to explore that simple human desire to run, this liberating and inspiring book reminds us why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives. (Ebury Press, 2016)

We are delighted to say that between the dates of December 1 and December 21, your staff discount will increase to 15% at Blackwells. This discount can be applied to anything in store that isn’t already discounted – books, gifts and games alike, so perfect for all your Christmas shopping! Please just show your staff card at the tills to receive this reduction.

We look forward to seeing you soon and we hope you all have a lovely Christmas!

Clare and the Blackwells Team.

Over four weeks this autumn, a team of dedicated student callers, led by Eva Chow in the Development Office, and student supervisors Juvayriyah Ikram, Adam Mathia and Rosdip Rai, spoke to over 1,000 alumni across the UK.

This year, the team raised the record breaking total of just over £90,000! We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our alumni, who gave us 259 gifts, ranging from £5 to £2,000. All of these donations will go to the Kent Opportunity Fund.

In 2016, for the first time, we also called our alumni in the United States and spoke to 221 US alumni, based across 30 states; from New York to Albuquerque to Lake Oswego, and raised almost $7,000 from 53 individual gifts. These funds will go towards the UKA-Fulbright Scholarships.

Our alumni community is a huge asset to the University, and many of the student callers commented on the positive and inspiring conversations that they had enjoyed.
Student caller, Maria Burrell said: ‘I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk to real professionals, who have been through all the processes and experiences that are involved in the job market. I’ve definitely had some inspiration as to what career I’d like to have!’

The alumi also enjoyed the calls, with one commenting: ‘I had a delightful and delightfully long’ chat with Anamaria. She is a lovely, well-spoken young lady and a credit to Kent. I encouraged her to pursue her graduate studies there – strike while the iron is hot! Her news of the University was amazing – a long way from my day (1972-73)!’

The Kent Opportunity Fund was established to support Kent students; through scholarships, bursaries for financial hardship and grants to extra-curricular projects, and sports projects. To donate or support our fundraising, please contact the development office on giving@kent.ac.uk.

Picture shows: Laura Thomas-Walters, whose PhD is funded by the Kent Opportunity Fund. She is investigating how behavioural research can be better utilised for illegal wildlife trade demand reduction strategies.

The Galvanising Workshop café will be opening from this coming Monday 28 November.

The opening times will be 08.00 – 18.00, Monday to Friday. Hot breakfast will be served from 08.30, this includes bacon rolls, waffles and pancakes. The main menu will be served from 12.00 – 17.30 which will include jacket potatoes, paninis, toasted flatbreads and hot food options.

As part of our launch we would love people to come and see us between 14.00 and 16.00 to sample some free coffee and hot chocolate, along with some chocolate Christmas yule log or mince pies (while stocks last)! This is taking place on both Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 between 14.00 and 16.00. Please do pop in and say hello!

The University is committed to safeguarding the health, safety and welfare of its students, and accepts its responsibility to promote good health by raising awareness of the risks of alcohol and drug misuse.

We respect the privacy of students but must be concerned where a student’s behaviour impairs his/her conduct, safety or academic performance and/or adversely affects other students, staff, campus life or the wider community.

The University of Kent policies and penalties associated with drug and alcohol related offences are outlined in the following policies:

1. University Policy Statement concerning Alcohol
2. University Policy Statement concerning Drugs (substance abuse)

These are a part of the general regulations.

If you or any of your friends have any concerns about these issues, you can access support via Student Support and Wellbeing and the Masters’ Offices.

We also have a representative from Turning Point, an organisation that provides specialist and integrated services to help people recover from addiction and gain control of their lives, available with our Wellbeing Team in Keynes College every Thursday. Appointments for Turning Point or for general counselling can be made via the Student Wellbeing Service.

The University, in partnership with Kent County Council, is looking forward to hosting the long awaited biennial Kent’s Sporting Legends event, where the achievements of Kent’s elite athletes will be celebrated.

Dame Julia Goodfellow, Vice-Chancellor of the University, commented ‘It is particularly appropriate that we should do so in this Olympic and Paralympic year, when we have seen such outstanding performances from our nation’s athletes.’

Graham Holmes, Director of Sport at Kent commented, ‘The evening is a pure celebration of sport, bringing together elite athletes from the University and across the region to reflect on past achievements and current successes, as well as upcoming talent who represent the future of sport. The dedication and efforts of our top athletes is an inspiration and it is fitting to acknowledge that with the county’s pre-eminent sports celebration event, Kent’s Sporting Legends.’

The event will be an evening packed full of musical, dance and sporting performances and will also include several live interviews with notable athletes.

For further information about the event please visit www.kent.ac.uk/sports/kentsportinglegends and to view and share photos and comments about Kent’s Sporting Legends find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @UniKentSports #kslegends

‘Thinking and working beyond the discipline: building student confidence, creativity and employability’ is the title of a workshop taking place on Tuesday 6 December 2016, from 12.45-14.00, in the UELT Seminar Room (Canterbury Campus).

The workshop will be presented by Dr Ian Bride (School of Anthropology and Conservation, Social Sciences Faculty and winner of a Social Sciences Faculty Teaching Prize in 2016) as part of the ‘Developing Teaching for Experienced Staff’ at the University.

Dr Bride fully concurs with Friere’s view that education should offer means by which we build critical, intellectual and practical capacities through creative and experiential learning that enable people to deal with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. In the context of his School, he therefore seeks to challenge students to question the value of natural (and social) science generated knowledge as the only (or certainly, the most valuable and relevant) form for directing the design and implementation of successful conservation strategies. This informs the practice Dr Bride will be talking about in this session; practice that is undertaken both within and outside the formal curriculum. The hope is that participants will be able to relate his approach to their own learning and teaching practice, and consider similar innovative interventions therein.

To book a place, please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk