Monthly Archives: July 2018

Kent Hospitality Housekeeping success at the annual BACHE Awards

Many congratulations are due to the Kent Hospitality Housekeeping department who won the ‘Cleaning Supervisor of the Year 2018’ Award at the British Association of Cleaning in Higher Education (BACHE) Awards in May.

By recognising the importance of professional cleaning activities in higher education institutions, BACHE aims to standardise training for cleaning staff, improve cleaning standards, and professionalise the delivery of cleaning and associated services on campus. This year the BACHE awards were held during the annual conference at Aston University.

With only three nomination categories, the team were delighted that Amanda Intrieri, Housekeeping Supervisor in Park Wood won the ‘Cleaning Supervisor of the Year 2018’ award, recognising her efforts and professionalism in performing her role. Kent were also given honourable mentions in the two other categories; the ‘Best Practice Award 2018’, distinguishing teams who continually develop their procedures to enhance the delivery of cleaning services on campus, and the ‘Cleaning Operative of the Year 2018’ award for Hayley Dyer, who works in Eliot College.

Gary Sayles, Executive Housekeeping Manager at Kent Hospitality said: ‘We are thrilled at our success at the BACHE Awards. To be recognised by this national association for our team’s consistent hard work is fantastic, with special congratulations to Amanda Intrieri who won the award. We are proud to deliver a consistently high standard of service here at the University, and to be acknowledged in all three categories is particularly rewarding.’

Don’t miss the Kent Sport Christmas party

Kent Sport is thrilled to announce that all University of Kent staff are invited to our Christmas party on Friday 7 December 2018.

Start the holiday season off on the right foot and celebrate with Kent Sport by trying your luck with casino tables and celebrating with a live band for the evening.

 Tickets are £6 which includes a welcome drink, Christmas buffet plus an acoustic set from   Tischa from 6pm and a full force funk from Project F  who will rock the house at 9pm – all LIVE in the Pavilion Café Bar. Numbers are limited, so don’t miss this opportunity and purchase your tickets early!

The party will feature:

  •  A cash bar
  • Casino tables
  • Christmas photo booth
  • Themed competitions with prizes to be won

It’s a party you won’t want to miss!

Tickets available now to book through the online store.

We’ll also be offering a raffle* filled with spectaculars prizes to win (from Gulbenkian vouchers to personal training sessions, tablets and Fitbits and much more).

Dress code: Smart
Doors open: 6pm
Carriages: Midnight

 Venue address:
Pavilion Café Bar
University of Kent
Parkwood Road
CT2 7SR  

*All proceeds will go towards Mike Wilkins Sports Scholarship fund which helps support future sportsmen and women at Kent.

We look forward to seeing you there!

teaching award image from university image library

University Teaching Prizes 2018

Once again the University is celebrating excellent teaching and learning support with the announcement of the 2018 University Teaching Prizes.

This year’s winners are:

Barbara Morris Prize for Learning Support

1st Prize Hannah Greer and Jen Davey (Work-Study – Careers and Employability Service) for a sustained and impactful effort to improve employment possibilities for students from a WP background.

Joint 2nd Prize – Charlene Earl (CEWL) for a sustained and impactful effort to enhance intercultural awareness at the University of Kent.

Joint 2nd Prize – Hannah Uglow (Kent Law Clinic) for a sustained and impactful effort to positively enhance the sense of Academic Community within Law at the University of Kent.

Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize

1st Prize – Dr Ruth Herbert and Dr Richard Perks (SMFA) for their work on Music Performance.

2nd Prize – Dr William Rowlandson (SECL) for his success and commitment in teaching over a number of years at Kent.

Social Sciences Faculty Teaching Prize

1st Prize Dr Triona Fitton (SSPSSR) for her work on the design, production, and teaching of a distance learning MA in Philanthropic Studies.

2nd Prize – Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris (KLS) for her work on design-driven teaching, learning, and research methods.

The prizes will be presented by the Vice-Chancellor at a lunchtime ceremony on Wednesday 3rd October 2018, from 12.30-14.00 in Darwin Conference Suite. Everyone is welcome. If you would like to attend, please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk

 

 

Athena SWAN Bronze Award

Athena SWAN: Words matter

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

 

SMFA Professor of Contemporary Music Tim Howle has new work premiered at the Art & Science Days Festival in France

Professor Tim Howle, SMFA Professor of Contemporary Music has a new acousmatic piece premiered on 27th June in Bourges, France at the Art & Science Days Festival. False Memory of Normandy (2018) was composed in collaboration with the poet J M Fox. Link here: https://soundcloud.com/tim-howle/d-day

Professor Howle’s interests include developing composition, primarily sonic art, acoustic music and music for experimental video.  More here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/smfa/staff/staff-profiles/musicandaudio/3Howle2.html

Additionally, Sarva Mangalam (2017), which was premiered at Electric Spring, at the University of Huddersfield earlier this year, is performed at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival on July 17th. It is also being shown at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), South Korea, 5-10th August. It is an audio-visual piece in collaboration with video maker Dr Nick Cope (https://nickcopefilm.com/ ) who currently holds an honorary position at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China.  At its premiere, the performance was supported with a paper: Avoidance Strategies relating the ideas in the piece to those of Brian Eno and Cornelius Cardew at Ambient@40 held at the same time.

Link to Sarva Mangalam: https://vimeo.com/255044916

Further, Professor Howle’s piece Phantom Ride (2014) composed with Dr Paul Dibley from Oxford Brookes University, will be performed at ICMC and at WOW- soundMIGRATION, Madrid in September. Link to Phantom Ride: https://soundcloud.com/tim-howle/phantom-ride

Sports Massage

Good news! The Kent Sport Physiotherapy Clinic will be running a discount on sports massages throughout the month of July to help you get rid of those nagging injuries. Sports massages are being offered at £15 for 30 minutes – and that’s the same great price regardless of whether you’re a Kent Sport member or not.

To book an appointment, please visit the reception desk inside the fitness suite or call the clinic staff on 01227 824375 or email physio@kent.ac.uk.

Please note that due to the renovation of the flooring in the fitness suite to improve customer experience, all physiotherapy and sports massage appointments will take place in the first aid room until 28 July. Please check in at the Sports Centre main reception before your appointment and you will be directed to the first aid room.

To keep up to date with the latest events and offers, follow Kent Sport Physiotherapy Clinic on Facebook.

Join the Gulbenkian Advisory Board

Would you like to help transform lives through culture and creativity?

Gulbenkian is seeking new members for our Advisory Board, and we would love to have staff and students well represented.

As we approach our 50th anniversary, we are looking to strengthen our existing Board members’ knowledge, skills and expertise in a number of key areas by recruiting well-connected and experienced individuals.

We want to recruit board members from all backgrounds, ages and sections of the community.

These are opportunities to make a real difference in the lives of young people and be part of one of Kent’s most vibrant creative organisations.

To apply please send a CV and a brief covering letter (no more than 2 pages of A4) setting out why you’re interested in becoming a member of the Advisory Board and what you may be able to contribute, for the attention of: Oliver Carruthers, Director, Gulbenkian via email o.j.carruthers@kent.ac.uk  or by post to Gulbenkian, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NB.

Download Advisory Board Recruitment Pack for more information.

Deadline for applications are on the 16th July 2018 at 5pm.

 

Changes to Giles Lane car park

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.

Medway campus

VC Open Forum for staff – Medway, Friday 6 July

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.