Two-weekend short CPD course for multi-professional healthcare workers on Introduction to Evaluation within Professional Context will take place in February/March.

The course will commence with consideration of a key question “what is the difference between evaluation and research” by way of an introduction to evaluative approaches in health services and how evaluation can take into account the complexity of health services.

Dates:

• Friday 16 – Saturday 17 February 2018, 09.00-17.00 and
• Friday 23 – Saturday 24 March 2018, 09.00-17.00.

The course is delivered by the University of Kent’s Centre for Professional Practice (CPP), based at Medway Building, Chatham Maritime, Medway, ME4 4AG.

The course will take into consideration the contexts and potential areas of conflict when conducting evaluation in health care settings through a session on the politics of evaluation, this will be followed by topics on:

• Different approaches to evaluation within implementation science
• Putting evaluation to practice

On successful completion of the course, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the differences between different evaluative approaches.
• Competently choose between the different evaluation approaches in an informed way.
• Apply an understanding of a variety of approaches to evaluate professionally relevant interventions and to ascertain impact of professionally based interventions.

The course is delivered by Dr Ferhana Hashem and Professor Patricia Wilson.

For more info and how to book, see the CPP short course webpages.

Flexible, part-time postgraduate and undergraduate programmes offered by the Centre build on your professional knowledge and skills, underpinning them with theories and research in the areas of evidence-based practice, learning and development.

The OPERA (Opportunity, Productivity, Engagement, Reducing barriers, Achievement) project, initiated by our Student Services department, seeks to embed a more inclusive approach to the way that we design and deliver information experiences at Kent.

Working in partnership with Jisc we adopted a different approach to removing barriers. Alistair McNaught from Jisc uses the analogy that a typical response to disabled students is to give them a ladder to get over barriers whereas we wanted to work on removing the barriers so that our students don’t need ladders.

The partnership with Jisc has afforded Kent the opportunity to refine, tailor and develop existing methodologies, confident that they reflect good practice derived from Jisc’s many years of leading inclusion initiatives.

Through the OPERA project we have demonstrated that we are an institution that values inclusivity through dedicated resource and the ability to assimilate inclusive practices into administrative and learning and teaching processes. The impact of the project is being seen in inclusive curriculum design, procurement, library resources, harnessing assistive technologies as productivity tools, web design, estates, hospitality, module and programme specification and a more pervasive inclusive mind-set.

The videos are available on the University of Kent OPERA project webpages.

Are you interested in starting your own business?

There is still time to book your place on our free Business Start-Up Workshops in conjunction with Study Plus and the Hub for Innovation and Enterprise at the Medway campus.

The workshops have been structured so that all students who are interested in freelancing or being self-employed can feel confident that they’ll walk away with valuable information. By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Pitch a business idea
• Understand the finances, legalities and processes for starting up a business
• Identify a suitable structure for a business plan
• Generate a business idea
• Test a business idea
• Develop marketing research
• Understand sales processes
• Pricing
• Plan cash flow
• Know tax, insurance and VAT requirements
• Understand the elements of a business plan

To book your place on the course, click here.

For more information, visit the Study Plus website.

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning and Teaching Network session titled ‘Working with and understanding international students’ on Wednesday 28 February 13.15-14.30 in Sibson Seminar Room 2, Canterbury.

Presented by Angela Koch, Student Learning Advisor, Student Learning Advisory Service, UELT and Charlene Earl, International Pathways Manager, Centre for English and World Languages.

Students’ differences provide a valuable setting where opportunities for learning, exchanging and reflection multiply. For this to happen activities and resources need to be designed in a way that engages students’ prior knowledge and skills, whether the intent is to build on that knowledge, to unpack it, or to encourage new ways of thinking and communicating.

Colleagues from SLAS and CEWL will share their experience and current practice of working with international students and will introduce some of the programmes and resources currently available to support them. There will be opportunities for reflection and discussion of possible ideas and instructional strategies to support inclusive teaching practices benefiting both international and home students alike.

All staff are welcome to attend, particularly those working with international students.

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

Dr Ruth Herbert, Lecturer in Music Performance in the School of Music and Fine Art,  has been invited to give a guest lecture at Humboldt University, Berlin as part of The KOSMOS Workshop Mind Wandering and Visual Mental Imagery in Music from 16-19th May. Ruth is one of several invited from international experts in the field of mind, music and consciousness.

Funding from Humboldt University will allow MA music student Andrea Hepworth, who has an interest in music psychology, to accompany Ruth and participate in the conference.

Ruth’s guest lecture, Everyday Musical Daydreams and Kinds of Consciousness, will feature both music we actually hear plus music that pops into our heads – including so-called ‘earworms’.

A music psychologist and performer, Ruth has diverse research interests in the fields of music in everyday life, music, health and wellbeing, music and consciousness (including ASC and Trance), sonic studies and music education. Further research interests include performance psychology, evolutionary psychology and ethology.  She has published extensively on aspects of music teaching and education and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Sonic Studies, Musicae Scientiae and the Global Listening Centre. She is also a member of the Music Education Expo and Musical Theatre and Drama Education Advisory Committee, the NYJC/IoE Jazz and Gender Forum, and (latterly) the Musical Progressions Roundtable.

More info on Ruth  here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/staff/staff-profiles/musicandaudio/Herbert.html

The next inspirational speaker event is here and we are very pleased to confirm that Prof Karen Cox, University of Kent Vice-chancellor and president, will be delivering a talk “From Pudsey to Professor: How Education Transforms Life” as part of the Student Success Project Inspirational Speaker programme​, Tuesday 13 February 2018, 18.00, Grimond Building.

Come and hear how education changed the life of Professor Karen Cox; how education took her from Pudsey to Professor. This is an event not to be missed. Staff and students are warmly invited to hear about Karen’s unique journey to such a senior position in our institution.

Date: Tuesday 13 Feb 2018
Time: 18:15
Where: Grimond Building

This event is free and open to all. For more information on the talk and how to book please visit our EventBrite page.

Refreshments and networking will take place after the event in Grimond Foyer. Feel free to circulate this invitation as widely as possible.