Sport, fitness and recreation is back and starting the New Year off with a bang! What better way to get those New Year’s resolutions off on the right foot than with our recently reduced Kent Sport student membership.

Gold student membership is now £164 and Silver £140, for use until 31 August 2019. Student membership is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Canterbury campus.

Student membership offers a huge range of benefits including access to the fitness suite, to all fitness and dance classes and access to facilities for club training. Membership also includes free rental of bicycles from the Cycle Hub and discounts on fitness services. So whether you enjoy keeping fit in the gym, dancing at Zumba, playing badminton with friends, participating in competitive sports, or access to special events such as UV Sports Night, DJ in the Gym, Fitness Fest and Xercise Factor, there is lots to enjoy at Kent Sport.

Join us, make friends, get active and discover more! Buy your membership online or at the Sports Centre and Pavilion receptions.

To stay up to date with the latest news, special offers and activities, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter UniKentSports. 

Students can face many challenges while studying at University, particularly for those with a disability or ongoing condition that may impact on your learning.

One way in which support is provided is through Inclusive Learning Plans (ILPs), that can be implemented to support a student and help to make reasonable adjustments to assist with your learning.

Following a recent Disability History Month forum held by Kent Union Vice-President Welfare Omolade Adedapo with Kent Union Students with Disabilities Officer Lucy Doey, student trustee Lily Dedman and final year Student Philip Crooker, there were issues raised about how ILPs are working for students.

Kent Union wants to make sure Inclusive Learning Plans are meeting your expectations and providing you with the support you need to succeed here at Kent.

So let us know what works or what doesn’t work well, if you have had an ILP, or how you would like to see ILPs improved by taking two minutes to fill in Kent Union’s online feedback tool Digital Rep.

Post by Kent Union Vice-President Welfare Omolade Adedapo

The Dean for Internationalisation, Dr Anthony Manning is pleased to invite you to the University’s annual Internationalisation Forum, which will take place at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses next term.

The Canterbury Forum will take place on Wednesday 23 January in the Darwin Conference Suites 1 and 2, from 09.30-12.30. Register here for the Canterbury Forum.

The Medway Forum will be held on Tuesday 29 January, from 14.00-15.30 in Room R2-09, Rochester Building. Register here for the event.

The aim of these events is to provide an overview on the progress of the University’s internationalisation activity and to share good practice, linking to the Internationalisation Strategy.

The full programme will be published shortly.

All staff are invited to attend and there will be representation from the student body.

We very much look forward to seeing you at one of the events.

Missed out on the Arriva discounted bus ticket at the start of the year? You have another opportunity to purchase the discounted bus ticket which is valid until 31 December 2019.

The ticket allows travel on any Arriva bus all over Medway, Kent and East Sussex. This includes the 191 service which operates to and from Liberty Quays- Campus- Chatham- Isle of Grain, and stops on Pembroke campus and at Western Avenue and Dock Road for access to the Historic Dockyard Chatham.

The student annual ticket is £145 which works out at around 40p per day. The public price for this ticket costs £990!

To get access to these huge discounts you will need to enter the relevant promotional code. Once you have entered the code, the price will drop down from £990 to £145.

Learn more about the Arriva discounted tickets.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, speaks to Cecilia Sayad from the School of Arts.

In this week’s episode, they talk about growing up in Brazil, horror and the supernatural, initially wanting to be a singer, learning to speak and write English, bringing a guitar to parties, and why Cecilia never has the same routine each day.

The next Nostalgia interview will feature University of Kent Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox. For all the other interviews in this series please see here.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, speaks to Dan and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, who were based at Kent from 1975-97 before moving to Lampeter where Dan was Professor of Judaism.

In this week’s episode, they talk about being born by artificial insemination; being an unmusical child in a musical family; passing one’s driving test while singing hymns; addressing the negative perceptions that colleagues have of oneself by writing a novel about the experience; and whether nostalgia is good for us or not (here Dan and Lavinia take completely different positions).

The next Nostalgia interview will feature Cecilia Sayad from the School of Arts, followed in January by Olly Double – also from the School of Arts – who is a stand-up comedian as well as Reader in Drama.

You are now able to request annual leave and record sickness absence through Staff Connect; the University’s integrated HR and Payroll system.

This is part of the continuing development of Staff Connect which aims to streamline our HR processes and extend employee and manager self-service, providing a one-stop-shop for as many HR activities as possible.

With this new module, requests for annual leave will be automatically forwarded to line managers to authorise. If your line-manager does not usually authorise your annual leave, they can delegate this responsibility to another member of their team. User guides for both managers and staff regarding delegation set up and management are available on the Staff Connect Delegation page.

Staff Connect replaces existing local systems of recording leave and absence. If you have annual leave already booked or agreed for 2019, it will need to be re-entered into Staff Connect. This can be done retrospectively for staff who have taken leave in the first days of the New Year.

As well as booking annual leave, sickness absence also needs to be reported and recorded via Staff Connect which will automatically inform the Pay Office of your absences. This means paper-based or electronic sickness absence forms no longer need to be submitted to the Pay Office.  You will also be able to securely upload any doctors’ notes or medical certificates into the system which will reduce the amount of sensitive personal data that is currently recorded on paper and sent via internal mail.

Managers will also be able to record other absences for their team including compassionate leave, academic visits and trade union duties.

For colleagues in European centres, local arrangements will continue as usual.

If you have any questions about Staff Connect and the launch of this new module, there is further guidance and support available, including;

• Support sessions – available in January and February 2019
• Overview for managers of annual leave and absence management
• User guides for employees
• User guides for managers
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Who to contact for further support (pdf)

This is the latest update in the Staff Connect Phase 2 project. The new staff recruitment system, replacing i-Grasp, will go live in February.