As the UK’s European university, Kent values intellectual and cultural diversity. More than 25% of our students and over 20% of staff come from outside the UK; for academic and research staff, the figure is even higher at 37%.

Our international community not only contributes to our teaching, learning, research and campus experience, but also to the economic, cultural and social fabric of the region.

On 20 February 2017, there will be a national day of action to celebrate the contribution migrants make to the UK. The national organisers of One Day Without Us have called for a single unifying action to take place at 13.00. Kent, along with other universities across the UK, will recognise the contribution made by our international community.

Come along, bring flags and banners, stand with students and colleagues to show your support, and we will share this moment via social media using #1daywithoutus

Join us
To demonstrate your support, join us over your lunch break from 12.30-13.15 in front of the:

• Registry (student reception side) on the Canterbury campus
• Rochester Building on the Medway campus

You can find out more about One Day Without Us at http://www.1daywithoutus.org/

Learning facilitated through collaborative research – A case study is the title of a workshop taking place on Thursday 23 February 2017, from 12.45 to 14.00, in the UELT Seminar Room (Canterbury Campus).

The workshop will be presented by Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt (School of Architecture, Humanities Faculty and winner of a Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize in 2016) as part of the Developing Teaching for Experienced Staff at the University.

To reduce humanity’s impact on the world’s climate system, the delivery of higher energy efficiency standards, such as the German PassivHaus standard, plays a central role. Achieving such standards, however, represents major challenge to the UK building industry, a challenge that can only be addressed through stronger partnerships between those involved in industry, education and academic research.

In this seminar Dr. Henrik Schoenefeldt will explore how higher education could fulfil its role in fostering such partnerships by embedding collaborative research into architectural education.

The second half of the session will be an interactive workshop in which the speaker will work with the participants to explore how collaborative research could be used as a teaching tool in other disciplines, such as law, engineering, business, healthcare or the arts.

As the UK’s European university, Kent values intellectual and cultural diversity. We are proud to be an outward-facing and international institution with more than 25% of our students and over 20% of staff coming from outside the UK. For academic and research staff, the figure is even higher at 37%. Our international community not only contributes to our teaching, learning, research and campus experience, but also to the economy, culture and social fabric of the region. Many go on to become global ambassadors for the University and the region.

On 20 February 2017, there will be a national day of action to celebrate the contribution migrants make in the UK. The national organisers of One Day Without Us have called for a single unifying action to take place at 13.00. Participants in communities across the UK are invited to link arms or hold up placards to show their support, and to share this moment via social media using #1daywithoutus

Along with a number of other universities across the UK, staff and students at Kent are organising an event to recognise the contribution made by our international community. Anyone wishing to take part during their lunch-hour is welcome to join a gathering in front of the Registry (the Student Reception side) at the Canterbury campus from 12.30 -13.15. The organisers have also invited those attending to eat their lunch in Rutherford Dining Hall where tables have been reserved.

Please contact Mary Hughes at M.P.Hughes@kent.ac.uk for further details about the Kent event and you can find out more about One Day Without Us at http://www.1daywithoutus.org/

The Social Sciences Faculty Research and Innovation Committee invites applications from Academic and Research Staff for the allocation of financial support to promote and enhance activities that lead to high quality research.

The deadline for applications this term will be by 17.00 on Friday 7 April 2017. Completed application forms should be emailed to Maryse Duarte (M.Duarte@kent.ac.uk).

Details on how the fund operates and an application form are available at
https://www.kent.ac.uk/socsci/faculty/funding/index.html.

Following the successful pilot of Kent’s free online short courses (also known as MOOCs, massive open online courses) as part of the K-MOOCs Beacon Project celebrating the University’s 50th anniversary, we are now launching four new free short online courses via learning platform FutureLearn.

The first of these courses titled ‘Functional Programming in Erlang’ is now available for online enrolment and starts on 20 February 2017. This first course is designed to teach the principles of functional programming and combines treatment of the theory of functional programming, and the practice of how that works in Erlang and is reinforced through practical exercises as well as more substantial suggested practical projects

Other upcoming online courses are:

• The Science of Endurance Training and Performance
• Concurrent Programming in Erlang
• Understanding Autism

About FutureLearn
Founded by The Open University in 2012, FutureLearn is a social learning platform, designed to support learning through conversation. It offers over five million learners free online courses from world-leading UK and international universities, centres of research excellence and specialist education providers like the British Council, Creative Skillset and European Space Agency. In May this year, and as a global first, FutureLearn announced that learners could now earn degree course credit through MOOCs with the introduction of a set of Programs.

Bringing the BTEC into the inclusivity agenda is the theme of the next CSHE (Centre for the Study of Higher Education) Research Seminar.

The seminar, to be presented by Dr Lavinia Mitton and Dr Alexander Hensby from University of Kent, will take place on Thursday 16 February, from 16.30-17.30, in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury Campus.

In this talk we will show why narrowing the white-BME attainment gap at degree level necessitates understanding vocational qualifications, in particular the BTEC. Secondly we will explain that not enough is known of how individual entrants with vocational qualifications may have a cluster of characteristics associated with low academic attainment, which may add to their disadvantage.

We will focus on the disparities in students’ confidence in their academic capabilities by qualification and ethnicity. Our evidence base is original unpublished data from the University . It was collected from Kent’s administrative records and a large scale online survey of its home domiciled undergraduates carried out in November 2014 (n=3858; response rate=34%). Our results indicate that in the pursuit of an inclusivity agenda we should monitor the academic attainment of students with vocational qualifications.

The talk will begin with an introduction to the research we are doing as part of the University’s wider Student Success (EDI) Project. https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentsuccess/index.html

All colleagues are welcome to attend.

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

Each year, the University awards a number of prizes to individual staff or teams for outstanding work in teaching and/or learning support. The call for applications for the 2017 prizes is now open. The closing date for applications is Friday 12 May 2017.

Further details and information on how to apply are available on our Teaching webpages.

The prizes will be awarded by the Vice-Chancellor at a lunchtime ceremony on Wednesday 4 October 2017, to which all staff are invited. Please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk if you would like to attend.

Kent Sport are hosting their first ever Boob Ball competition on Saturday 25 February from 13.00 to raise money for CoppaFeel.

Boob ball is essentially dodge ball but with boobs instead of balls.

The event is a £1 donation per player which is to be paid on the day.

To enter a team, players can either collect an entry form from the Sports Centre reception or email the Kent Sport team.

For more information please email: sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk