Work on the University’s Athena SWAN gender equality charter now includes Professional Services and involves shining a light on some of the established practices that impact the experience of our Professional Services colleagues.

One issue that has been raised with the Athena SWAN team is the use of the term ‘non-academic’ to describe Professional Service roles. It may not seem immediately obvious or important but defining colleagues by what they are not has a negative impact on their identity.  Words matter and this is an example of everyday behaviour that can easily go unchallenged. We are asking all colleagues to avoid using the negative term ‘non-academic’ and instead describe roles whether they be Research, Academic or Professional Services by what they are, rather than by what they are not.

Please keep your feedback coming to athenaswan@kent.ac.uk

Over the summer there will be changes to the Giles Lane car parks. This includes essential maintenance for health and safety reasons.

Giles Lane car park will be fully closed from Monday 9 July with the aim to reopen the car park by September. This work has been scheduled over the summer vacation to cause minimal disruption.

We are taking this opportunity to reduce the level of the pink zone so Giles Lane car parks will be consolidated into one car park. The car park will become fully pink zone. From checks carried out by the Transport Team, less than 15% of the blue zone car park is being used by student blue zone permit holders; around 75% is being used by staff and associates and around 10% is being used by other persons.

Blue zone parking will still be available in the Sports Centre blue zone, Park Wood Courts, Pavilion and Oaks car parks.

Creating one level car par park allows us to improve the parking experience by installing Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) barriers in the car park and Variable Message Signage (VMS) along Giles Lane to provide information to drivers on the number of available spaces in Giles Lane car park. This will help with parking enforcement and traffic management. Environmentally, the introduction of VMS should help to reduce carbon emissions as drivers will spend less time driving around Giles Lane car park in search of a parking bay.

Levelling the car park will also create some additional parking bays within the car park.

Do you need to travel by car?

If it is an option for you why not consider changing up your travel to campus by walking, cycling or taking the bus? The University encourages sustainable travel wherever possible through the University’s Travel Plans. Did you know you can save over 50% when you purchase a staff discounted bus pass? Check out our travel discounts and planning your journey webpages.

How do I find out more information?

The Transport Team are working with key people in the Gulbenkian, Kent Sport, Conference Office and Recruitment to help manage their large number of visitors over the summer. If you are aware of any large events over summer outside of these departments that may be affected by the changes to Giles Lane car park, please email the Transport Team .

The Transport Team will be providing regular updates throughout the summer vacation period via their newsletter.

A reminder that our Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox, will be holding an Open Forum at Medway campus this Friday (6 July).

The Forum, from 10.30-11.30 in Pilkington Lecture Theatre, is open to all University of Kent staff. It’s an opportunity to share your thoughts on the University – what works, what doesn’t work and how you’d like to see things done differently. Your feedback will help to shape the review of the University strategy and priorities over the next few years.

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