Dear Students,

Thank you for your letters, emails and face-to-face conversations over the last few days. I have heard from staff and students from across the University. I have been ‘out and about’ and talking with staff and students as well and I am very concerned about how things have unfolded here at Kent in relation to the dispute over pensions. I want to assure you I am actively seeking to resolve these internally. It is not the way I want things to be and my aim is to get back to positive campus relations between us all, our staff and students. To that end, I have indicated that we will not be deducting any pay for action short of a strike (ASOS) for this period of action. In addition, we have been talking with Kent Union and the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) about our Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and hourly paid lecturers (HPLs) position to ensure there is no long-term detrimental impact if they choose to take strike action.

I appreciate that this action will impact on your experience here at Kent. My colleagues across the University are working hard to mitigate the impact of any action on you our students and this will continue.

I will personally continue with my support for the need for decent pensions and I know many of you support that position. I will also continue with my public calls for continued and constructive discussions between UCU and UUK to resolve this. I made a public call to UUK in a letter dated 21 February on this which was reported in The Times and have continued to lobby UUK to this effect. I was very pleased when discussions resumed between UUK and UCU facilitated by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). I will continue to publicly support constructive discussions. We have also been lobbying USS on this issue as well with regard to the assumptions which underlie the valuation and which are driving the deficit. We have invited them to the University to discuss this and had face-to-face conversations to raise our concerns. We have also lobbied them via UUK. We will continue to exert this pressure.

I am in regular discussions with Kent Union and I have a meeting scheduled next week to hear from Student Representatives across the University about their concerns on this issue. Please feel free to get in touch with your course, school or faculty rep about any concerns you would like them to raise when they meet with me. I have had the good fortune to meet many of our students already but hope I will get to meet more of you at one of the open forums I will be running later in the year.

Yours sincerely,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for your letters, emails and face-to-face conversations over the last few days.

I acknowledge the challenges we have all been facing over the past few weeks with strike action. It is not easy trying to balance respecting the right to take action over an issue we all want resolving in the best interests of current and future staff, our University and the sector as a whole, with minimising the impact on our students and those colleagues not taking action. As I noted in an email to colleagues last week, I would like to thank all of you for the time, effort and energy that is going into working our way through this; it is much appreciated. I recognise many of you are juggling relationships and communications between students, staff taking action and those not taking action and I do not underestimate the emotional work that goes in to this when current and future relationships are trying to be maintained.

I have heard from staff and students from across the University. I have been ‘out and about’ and talking with staff and students as well and I am very concerned about how things have unfolded here at Kent in relation to the dispute over pensions. I want to assure you I am actively seeking to resolve these internally. It is not the way I want things to be and my aim is to get back to positive campus relations between us all, our staff and students. To that end, I have indicated that we will not be deducting any pay for action short of a strike (ASOS) for this period of action. In addition, we have been talking, and will continue to talk, with Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) about our Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and hourly-paid lecturers positions to ensure there is no long-term detrimental impact if they choose to take strike action. I also appreciate all that is being done to mitigate the impact of any action on our students and hope that this will continue.

I will personally continue with my support for the need for decent pensions. I will also continue with my public calls for continued and constructive discussions between UCU and Universities UK (UUK) to resolve this. I made a public call to UUK in a letter dated 21 February on this which was reported in The Times and have continued to lobby UUK to this effect. I was very pleased when discussions resumed between UUK and UCU facilitated by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). I will continue to publicly support constructive discussions. We have also been lobbying the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) on this issue as well with regard to the assumptions which underlie the valuation and which are driving the deficit. We have invited them to the University to discuss this and had face-to-face conversations to raise our concerns. We have also lobbied them via UUK. We will continue to exert this pressure.

Earlier this year, I embarked on a series of discussions in schools and professional services departments and these are continuing. I see these as a good opportunity to have conversations about our future as a University and how we can work together to create an even better working, learning and research environment. I hope I will get to meet more colleagues at one of these meetings or one of the other open forums I will be running later in the year.

I look forward to working together with you all and I thank you for all you do for the University on a daily basis.

Yours sincerely,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox, Vice-Chancellor and President

Dr Kirsty Corrigan, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has contributed the cover article to the latest edition of History Today magazine, March 2018, entited ‘Brutus: Character Assassination’.

Launched in 1951, History Today is a monthly magazine dedicated to bringing history to a wide audience. Its circulation is approximately 18,500 readers.

Kirsty’s article argues that Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42BCE), the conspirator behind the assassination of Julius Caesar (100–44BCE), did not always act for moral principles or for the benefit of the Roman Empire, as is usually portrayed.

The edition of History Today is on sale now, and full article is available here with an online subscription.

Small Satellites are the most disruptive technology in space industries. Recent development in electronics enabled satellites to become smaller and more intelligent.

A Special Issue on ‘Small Satellites’ has been published in Proceedings of the IEEE (March 2018 issue).

Prof. Steven Gao, from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, is the Leader Guest Editor of this Special Issue.

Guest co-editors of this Issue include Professor Sir Martin Sweeting (OBE), Executive Chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, UK, Prof. Shinichi Nakasuka, University of Tokyo, Japan, and Prof. Peter Worden, former Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, USA.

The Special Issue consists of 11 papers on different technologies of small satellites, authored by leading experts such as Prof. Paulo Lozano, MIT, et al. Prof. Gao is the leading author of an invited paper titled as ‘Advanced antennas for small satellites’. Proceedings of the IEEE is the flagship Journal of IEEE and has an impact factor of 9.237, much higher than other IEEE Journals.

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning and Teaching Network session titled ‘Running an effective Board of Examiners’ on Wednesday 21 March 13.15-14.30 in Sibson Seminar Room 2, Canterbury.

Presented by Malcolm Dixon, Head of Quality Assurance.

This session will give an overview of the processes relating to running effective Board of Examiner meetings. Participants will be given up-to-date guidance about the Credit Framework and related examination conventions / procedures for the classification of awards, in accordance with Annexes J and K of the Code of Practice. The relevant policies and procedures will be reviewed, and there will be time for questions and discussion.

This session is for University staff who are involved with organising, attending or recording Board of Examiner meetings. Staff new to Boards of Examiners are strongly encouraged to attend.

As places are limited attendance will be restricted to one person per School.

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