The University is one of the key supporters of the first Ableism In Academia conference (AIA) being held at UCL on 23 March 2018.

Even in a field where inclusivity and diversity are given due priority many pressures and challenges are faced by disabled, chronically ill, and neurodiverse staff in HE. By engaging in debate around academic ableism, including how it intersects with gender, race, class, age, and sexuality, AIA aims to create a policy-facing manifesto that will challenge academia’s existing notions of able-bodied perfection and provide impetus for change.

AIA organiser Nicole Brown, is Academic Head of Learning and Teaching within UCL’s Institute of Education, as well as undertaking PhD research here at Kent with Dr Jennifer Leigh (CSHE).

The event will be live-streamed to ensure wide accessibility and members of staff are warmly invited to participate by following the steps summarised on Nicole’s website.

The AIA keynote speaker is Fiona Kumari Campbell (University of Dundee), author of Contours of Ableism.

Message from Karen Cox, Vice-Chancellor and President:

As you know, as part of my commitment to meeting as many colleagues as possible and getting views on the University, I am working my way round our schools and professional service departments and having open conversations as part of school meetings and department updates.

In addition, I will be holding three Open Forums for anyone to ‘drop in’. These are currently scheduled for March, May and July. The first of these will be held on Thursday 22 March from 10.00-11.00 in Woolf Lecture Theatre, Canterbury campus (with the next one being held at Medway). These will be open sessions for colleagues to share with me their thoughts on the University, what works, what doesn’t work and how they would like to see things done differently. This will all help to shape the review of the University strategy and priorities over the next few years.

If you are able to attend the first Open Forum, please register your attendance here.

If you have never had the opportunity to visit Liberty Quays, the University of Kent accommodation for Medway campus students, here’s your chance.

Kent Hospitality are hosting an open afternoon for Medway staff on Thursday 22 March from 12.00 – 14.00 to view a student flat and see what facilities are available on site.

We’ll be there to answer any questions you have, plus there will be cakes and coffee on offer at Liberty Quays.

While down at the accommodation site, you are more than welcome to visit Cargo, our Bar and Bistro, for soft drinks and savoury snacks. It is also a great opportunity to speak to our Food and Beverage Manager about how we can help with school and departmental events and the services we provide.

Register for the event now online and if there is strong demand from our registered attendees, we will also be providing transport between the Dockyards and Pembroke Campus to and from Liberty Quays.

Please note registration closes on Tuesday 20 March.

For further information please visit the registration page or contact: conferences@kent.ac.uk

Dr Bike returns to Medway campus Tuesday 20 March 2018. Find Dr Bike outside the Student Hub 11.30-14.30 for your free bike check up.

Dr Bike’s services are available to University of Kent and University of Greenwich students and staff. The Dr Bike service is provided by Chris and his team at ByCycle, working with the Transport Team, Estates department.

Additional work will be quoted individually but will always be at a special University of Kent reduced rate.

For more information visit our web page.

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning and Teaching Network session on Monday 26 March, 13.15-14.30 in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury.  The session titled ‘The Use of Interactive Classroom Experiments in Teaching’ is presented by Sylvain Barde, Edward Cartwright and Anna Stepanova from School of Economics.

Classroom experiments have become an increasingly common way of teaching economics and other social sciences in an engaging and fun way. But, implementing an experiment in the classroom involves significant costs and this understandably deters many lecturers from using them.

In this session we will discuss our experience running classroom experiments over many years and also chart progress on a recent project to develop experiments using o-Tree. o-Tree is new open-source software that allows for interactive experiments that can be performed easily on smartphones and laptops etc. This has the potential to revolutionize how we run classroom experiments because it allows for easy to run, quick, large scale interactions. For instance, an asset market, social dilemma or voting mechanism could be run in a large lecture theater with instantaneous feedback on the overhead to inform learning. This is a step beyond existing classroom response systems. Students can also be given unique identifiers to participate in a number of experiments over the course of a module or degree program.

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

The Alumni Pub Nights series is Kent’s social and networking series for alumni and students. The next Pub Night will be on Tuesday 27 March with the theme of career advice and mentoring. We’d love you to see you there to catch up on news from Kent and socialise with current students and fellow alumni.

The University of Kent’s Careers and Employability Service will be joining us to talk about what help they can give students, staff and alumni and how the mentoring platform, KEW-NET, could be of use to you.

Alumni should come along to find out how you can help a Kent student progress in their career by mentoring, talking on campus, taking part in Kent’s Employability Festival or taking on a student for work experience. This is also a great opportunity for 1st or 2nd year students to come along to find out upcoming graduate careers fairs and work experience opportunities.

We will be at the Miller’s Arms in Canterbury on Tuesday 27 March from 18.00 – 20.00. Please still come along even if you don’t need careers advice to meet with current students and fellow alumni! First drink and nibbles provided. Please let us know you are coming along by registering here.

And join the event on Facebook.

£150K of funding is available to departments wishing to develop new academic programmes to underpin higher or degree apprenticeships. Funding can be used to support activity such as employing new staff or developing learning materials.

Currently Kent has over 140 apprentices and offers the following apprenticeships:

•       Laboratory Science underpinned by FdSc/BSc Applied Bioscience, FdSc/BSc Applied Chemical Sciences

•       Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship underpinned by BSc Management.

Funding is offered by the Centre for Higher and Degree Apprenticeships (CHDA) a PSD established to support the delivery of apprenticeships. CHDA handles student administration and recruitment for apprenticeship programmes, allowing departments to focus on the delivery of the underpinning degree.

Funding proposals should identify an apprenticeship that will be supported by the development of a new academic programme. The full list of apprenticeship standards available for delivery, as well as those in development is available here.

We will accept proposals for funding to develop both standards approved for delivery and those still under development. We are focusing on developing provision at levels 6 and 7 only and applications should be to support apprenticeships at these levels.

Examples of apprenticeships applications may align to:

•       Advanced Clinical Practitioner (L7)

•       Animator (L7)

•       Bioinformatics Scientist (L7)

•       Creative Digital Designer (L4-6)

•       Ecologist (L7)

•       Internet of Things (L7)

•       Journalist (L4-6)

•       And many more….

Applications should be in the form of an e-mail (endorsed by head of department) detailing:

•       The apprenticeship and academic qualification for which funds are sought.

•       The intended activity/activities to be funded.

•       Expected launch date of apprenticeship programme.

•       Amount of funding requested.

Deadline for applications is 6th April 2018 to s.s.wildman@kent.ac.uk.  Applications will be considered by the CHDA Steering Group and decisions endorsed by Faculty Deans.  All funds must be spent in academic year 2018/19.

SMFA Lecturer in Music, Jackie Walduck, will be performing with her improvising ensemble Ignite at London’s Wigmore Hall, in an early evening performance at 17.45 on Wednesday 21 March. Tickets cost £5. Find out more and book.

A composer and vibraphone player, whose work explores the meeting points between composition and improvisation, and their impact on ensemble performance, Jackie Walduck has performed across the UK, Europe and in the Middle East, with musicians as diverse as the Philharmonia, Sinfonia Viva, Kala Ramnath, and the Royal Army Band of Oman.

The programme will include her new piece Skeeter, which plays with the sounds of mosquitos.  Other pieces include works written for Ignite by Luke Bedford, Stephen Warbeck and a new commission form Layale Chaker.

Image credit: Hannah Strijbos

We would like to remind staff who are participating in the UCU industrial action that they are asked to complete an online declaration of their participation in the strike action and action short of strike (ASOS). Whilst there is no requirement or obligation to give advance notification that you are intending to take industrial action of any kind, completing the declaration will allow the University to manage the disruption to our students as effectively as possible. The University will maintain both your employer and employee pension contributions provided that you give consent via the online declaration process in a timely way.

To declare your participation in (or subsequent withdrawal from) the industrial action, please click on this link to log into Staff Connect and select the relevant Industrial Action Form button on the left-hand menu (if you intend to go on strike and participate in ASOS, you will have to click on both buttons). This will then display the declaration forms, please select the form(s) you wish to complete. Once completed, please ensure that you click on the submit button which is in the bottom right-hand corner of the form. Please note that you will need to submit both the strike and ASOS forms separately if you intend to participate in both.

If you have any questions related to the industrial action, please direct them to the Employee Relations & Business Partnering team.

Martin Atkinson
Assistant Director – Employee Relations and Business Partnering | Human Resources