The Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) in UELT is pleased to introduce its NEW ONLINE BOOKING SYSTEM: SLAS CONNECT for all 1:1 appointments and SLAS workshops and events.

To book a 1:1 appointment with a learning advisor, Royal Literary Fellow or maths/stats tutor, students should go to: https://kentslas.targetconnect.net/student/appointments.html

To book a place on one of our wide range of study skills workshops and events, students should visit: https://kentslas.targetconnect.net/student/events.html

Further details, as well as information on the range of programmes and initiatives that SLAS offers students and colleagues are available on the SLAS website.

On 10 June 2017, teams of friends and families of people with Cystic Fibrosis are taking on the challenge of a 65k walk about the Surrey hills. Our team consists of University staff and students including Pip and Nikki Gregory, James Kearsey, Robert Newman and Vicky Arnold-Woods, as well as some of our close friends and family.

What is Cystic Fibrosis (CF)?

CF is a genetic condition affecting more than 10,800 people in the UK. Symptoms vary between patients, but are generally identified through salty skin, poor digestion and a persistent cough. One in 25 of the population carries the faulty gene without even knowing, but two faulty genes make a patient. More details are available via the CF Trust website https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/

Our history:

Pip and I (Nikki) were born with CF, and over the years, we’ve faced numerous setbacks, infections, hospital stays and surgeries. Life with CF means being badly affected by a build-up of mucus (lovely I know!), which over time limits lung capacity, so walking long distances can be very difficult. Life expectancy of someone with CF is around 37 years (Pip and I are both in our 30s!), but I cheated and received a double lung transplant 6 years ago.

Begging:

GreatStrides65 is a charity event and any money raised will go to the CF trust. We are asking you to sponsor us for the long distance. We have set up a just giving page and have a charity box in the Templeman Library Office, and the usual sponsorship forms should you wish to drop money off with us.

We appreciate any help we can get, and thank you for supporting such an amazing cause, and one so close to our hearts.

Nikki, Pip and Team

[Picture shows (from left): Nikki, Robert Newman (PhD) Pip Gregory (PhD) and Vicky Arnold-Woods (PhD)]

The annual Internationalisation Forum will be taking place on Tuesday 31 January from 14.00-16.00 in Room R2-09 in the Rochester Building, Medway campus.

The purpose of the event is to share details about Internationalisation activity at Kent, and to allow colleagues from across the University to meet and exchange good practice.

All staff are invited to attend. The programme will be published shortly and you can register your attendance on the Events webpages.

We very much look forward to seeing you at the Forum.

Missed out on the Arriva discounted bus ticket at the start of the year? You have another opportunity to purchase the discounted bus ticket, which is valid until 31 December 2017.

The ticket allows travel on any Arriva bus all over Medway, Kent and East Sussex. This includes the 191 trial service which operates to and from Liberty Quays- Campus- Chatham- Isle of Grain, which stops on Pembroke campus and at Western Avenue and Dock Road for access to the Historic Dockyard Chatham.

The student annual ticket is £140 which works out at around 39p per day. The staff annual ticket is £280 which works out at around 78p per day. To get access to these huge discounts, you will need to enter the relevant promotional code found at www.kent.ac.uk/transport/arriva. Once you have entered the code, the price will drop down from £900 to £140 or £280 accordingly.

Transport Team
01227 82 3609   transport@kent.ac.uk   @unikent_travel   www.kent.ac.uk/transpor
Estates Department, University of Kent, Park Wood Road, Canterbury, CT2 7NN
Transport Updates: @unikent_travel   Transport News Blog

Registration is now open to attend the Researching the Rainbow Conference on 22 February as part of LGBT History Month.

The conference showcases some of the excellent research being conducted across the University related to LGBT issues and people, and is an opportunity to encourage multidisciplinary collaboration and networking across the University’s community of students, staff, alumni and members of the public. Research posters will also be on display. If you would like to submit a poster, please email your interest to lgbtstaffnetwork@kent.ac.uk by Tuesday 31 January.

Speakers include academics and students from the Schools of English, Law and History, discussing topics such as British colonial laws on sodomy, transgender and parenting identities within the law, homosexual WWII clandestine operatives and queer exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Pete Mercer from Stonewall will also be attending to provide an update on the charity’s work to support LGBT people, as well as Terry Gore from Catching Lives, who will be talking about their research on LGBT homelessness.

The conference is free and open to all. Further information, including the full agenda and how to book, is on the LGBT+ Staff Network blog. Please register by Friday 17 February.

Find out more about LGBT History Month activities here.

Academic and professional services working in partnership to enhance the ‘student experience’ is the theme of the next CSHE (Centre for the Study of Higher Education) Research Seminar.

The seminar, to be presented by Sarah Parkes from Newman University, will take place on Thursday 2 February, from 16.30-17.30, in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury Campus.

The Student Retention and Success model (Thomas, 2012) highlights the importance of partnership work within the third space (Routledge, 1996; Bhabba in Solomon et al 2006; Whitchurch, 2013) in generating a sense of belonging that promotes student retention, progression and success.

Many different models are used to deliver such support but students appear to be less inclined to accept support if it is delivered by professional staff (no matter how highly they are qualified) than by their own, disciplinary academic staff. This highlights the need for closer and more collaborative working between academic and professional staff on issues where the latter may be the more experienced but the former can provide the disciplinary discourse and context (Eales-Reynolds in Parkes et al, 2014).

Partnership work between staff and students is also seen more recently as a response to the marketisation of HE demonstrated in the NUS (2016) ‘Manifesto for Partnership’ thus generating questions about readiness for partnership-working, how to begin and what to work together on.

This seminar will discuss emergent themes arising from a pilot study published in 2014 through exploration of the rationale for collaboration across staff and student groups; recognition of the benefits & challenges of collaborative work alongside providing opportunity for reflection on institutional contexts and directions.

All colleagues are welcome to attend.

Please book a place by emailing cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk as limited seating is available.

The first Lunchtime Concert of the new term kicks off with a Highland fling this Wednesday (25 January), as award-winning ensemble Fara brings folk music of Scotland to the Colyer-Fergusson concert-hall.

As usual admission is free, with a suggested donation of £3: more details can be found on our Music webpages, or collect the new What’s On brochure from Colyer-Fergusson and the Gulbenkian.

All professional colleagues working at Faculty or School level in Canterbury and Medway (around 290 staff) were invited to a one-day development conference on Thursday 12 January,  at the Canterbury campus on the theme of dealing with change.

This is part of the “Excellence Initiative” started in 2012 to encourage the sharing of good practice across the different Schools and Faculties, and to celebrate and enhance the service delivered by professional staff to students and academics as well as to other professional colleagues working centrally.

The current “Excellence and Change” enhancement theme succeeds the “Service Excellence” and “Excellence through Partnerships” themes, which gave birth to a number of projects, such as the very successful Shadow Matching and Coffee with Colleagues schemes in 2016.

The day began with two keynote addresses from Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education, and Dr Christopher Sarchet, consultant for SUMS and Convenor of the AUA’s Managing Change in Higher Education Network. Both discussed the various internal and external changes which have been – and will be – impacting the University, as well as the whole sector, and how professional service staff can embrace these changes.

During the afternoon, each participant was able to attend two break-out workshop sessions from a choice of nine, which included topics such as the politics of change; dealing with change; career pathways; the student perspective; or mindfulness.  These were led by Kent staff as well as visiting speakers from Kent Union, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Northampton.

We were delighted to be joined throughout the day by members of central departments and central projects who manned stands which either showcased new developments in their areas, or highlighted the various opportunities and support offered by the University to staff who are seeking or facing a change in their professional life. These included the Student Success Project; Staff Connect; Wellbeing; the Requirements Team; Self-Guided Audio Tour; further qualifications offered by the Centre for Professional Practice; and the University’s Master Plan, to name but a few.

We were also fortunate to have one of our colleagues, Louise Frith, and one of our students, Sophie Thurlow, documenting the conference through graphic recording. These images, as well as the presentations are available on the Excellence Initiative website, where further information on current projects and past and future events can also be found.

The Excellence events team would like to thank everyone who gave the keynote addresses, delivered sessions, exhibited and contributed to the success of the conference, as well as all of the colleagues who attended.