Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has released another instalment of his podcast series on ‘Nostalgia’ interviewing the Reverend Dr Alan Le Grys, who taught as Specialist Associate Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies.

In a very candid interview, Alan talks about growing up in the South London suburbs on the edge of the largest council estate in the UK in a house that, when he was young, was thought might be haunted, and where he felt the presence of his deceased grandparents. Alan reflects on how, at school, he was the last child to be picked in football, but has in later years embraced running. He has, for example, run the London Marathon for charity. Alan also talks about the ritual of ‘dressing the part’, and offers the aphorism that one needs to ‘Make something routine so that it becomes so much part of your rhythm that you are freed to enter into it.’

Alan discusses the role that music has played in his life, principally in the form of ‘Bach, Beethoven and the Beatles’, and we learn which of the Beatles’ eras he considers to be ‘headache music’, and why. He also talks about why he returned to playing the piano in later years to Grade 5 standard, and how he has also recently accumulated around 10 hours of flying experience as a student pilot.

Despite having three degrees from King’s College London, Alan doesn’t see himself as an academic (leading to a riveting conversation around the theme of ‘imposter’ and ‘fraud’ syndrome) and had never considered either ordination or even going to university until it was suggested to him by his school teachers.

Alan talks movingly about the death of his father, and how his ‘world totally collapsed’, which happened while he was in the midst of writing an essay during his undergraduate degree on the Resurrection, and which he refers to as a ‘deep, formative experience’. Then, in the final part of the interview, we discuss the art of competitiveness and whether it is the process or the end goal that matters, and the way in which he believes the past can be thought of as being reframed by the future.

The podcast is available here.

Learning & Organisational Development are pleased to announce that the University has achieved Level 1 of the Disability Confident Grading Scheme and we are now accredited with ‘Disability Confident Committed’.

Through Disability Confident, we will work to ensure that disabled people and those with long-term health conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. Recognition of this scheme will help us to recruit and retain from the widest possible pool of talent and help develop our valuable skills and experience.

As a Level 1 Disability Confident Committed Employer we have committed to:

• ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible
• communicating and promoting vacancies
• offering an interview to disabled people who meet the essential criteria
• anticipating and providing reasonable adjustments as required
• supporting any exiting employee who acquires a disability or long-term health condition, enabling them to stay in work
• arranging activities that will make a difference for disabled people.

The Certification (pictured) is valid for 12 months and we can now display the Disability Confident Committed badge on University stationery, correspondence and websites.

Please review where and how you can use this badge within your own processes.

Our work will not stop here.

To demonstrate our continued commitment, during the next 12 months we will review the criteria that is required for us to attain the level 2 certification to become a Disability Confident Employer. We will create an action plan and will work across the University with different departments and the EDI staff networks with the aim to achieve the next level of certification.

A new Crowdfunding platform set up by the Development Office to support student projects at Kent has successfully raised thousands to build an environmentally sustainable round wooden timber-framed building – using materials taken from the University’s own coppiced woodland.

This exciting project to create a teaching, learning, and social space set within an ethnobotanical garden was launched at the School of Architecture End of Year Show and quickly took off.

‘We raised well over the £3,000 target in a matter of weeks and thanks to generous match-funding this ambitious and ground-breaking project will enter the building phase at the start of next term,’ said Alex Perkins from the Development Office.

There will now be a further launch to coincide with Freshers Week and the Development Office will be working with Kent Union to choose student-led projects to fund raise through the platform.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a ticket to Kent Sport’s Christmas at the Pavilion Cafe Bar on Friday 7 December 2018.

We were able to secure 50 more tickets, so if anyone has had any disappointment with purchasing more tickets – now is your chance!

At only £6 per ticket, it promises to be a night filled with incredible music by Project F, delicious food, scrumptious cocktails and entertaining games and competitions. We will also have a raffle to win some pretty awesome prizes with proceeds going towards Mike Wilkins Sports Scholarship Fund.

Click here to get your tickets now!

Let us know you’ll be in attendance by clicking ‘Going’ on our Facebook event.