Kent Hospitality summer housekeeping are recruiting team members for Canterbury campus accommodation. Candidates should be available to work between 10 June and 15 September 2019.

Successful candidates will need to be flexible regarding working days and hours. Some weekend working is required; you must be available to work on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June 2019.

Rates are:

• £8.82 p/hr 16 – 24 years old
• £9.41 p/hr 25 years and over (Living Wage)

Successful applicants will be required to:

• Attend an interview on Monday 20 or Tuesday 21 May 2019.
• Attend a three hour Health and Safety induction on Monday 3 or Tuesday 4 June. For the health, safety and welfare of staff and conference guests, all successful applicants will be required to attend a health and safety induction. Applicants must be able to demonstrate the required level of understanding in all areas covered in the training. Any staff not achieving the required standard will not be permitted to work.
• Start work in the week commencing 10 June 2019 (minimum of two shifts for training).

If you think this summer vacancy is for you, please complete the online questionnaire

Closing date for applications: 30 April 2019 (or earlier if we receive a large number of applications).

The Kent Hospitality HR department will then email you by Tuesday 7 May to let you know whether or not your application has been successful. You will then be invited to an interview at which you will need to provide documentation to confirm your eligibility to work in the UK.

Please do not contact the Kent Hospitality HR department to check the status of your application, as they will be unable to answer individual enquiries.

From Sunday 28 April Stagecoach are changing the price of some of their bus tickets.

Changes to fares that affect the University of Kent are listed in the table below:

Don’t forget that it is cheaper to purchase bus tickets on the Stagecoach bus app. Load and pay for your tickets and then activate them when you get on the bus.

The Stagecoach bus app also allows you to check live bus times and create favourites for bus stops and buses to make your journey planning easier.

See the full Stagecoach story for all fare changes.

Professor David Chadwick had the opportunity to prove himself as one of the most popular scientists in the UK in I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here!. The Professor of Information Systems Security from the School of Computing reached the final three in his area of the competition after other scientists were voted out.

I’m a Scientist… is an online activity for school students to connect with scientists. It is an X Factor-style competition between scientists, where students are the judges. Students challenge the scientists over fast-paced online text-based live chats. They can ask anything they want, and vote for their favourite scientist to win a prize of £500 to communicate their work with the public.

David said: “I really enjoyed taking part in the competition and would encourage any of my colleagues to do the same. I took part in the relationship zone, which was primarily for psychologists but overlaps with my area of expertise in cyber security, eg, how do you know who you are really talking to over the Internet, via Facebook or other social media? The next event is happening in June and it’s a great way to interact with young people who are curious about the world around them.”

You can review David’s profile and see the questions and his answers at: https://relationshipsm19.imascientist.org.uk/profile/davidchadwick/

Scientists interested in taking part in future events can find out more at: https://imascientist.org.uk/2019/03/whats-been-happening-in-im-a-scientist-the-online-science-engagement-event/

In an exciting collaboration between the University of Kent, the Visual Commentary on Scripture project, King’s College, London and Canterbury Cathedral, the Department of Religious Studies has brought together some of the most widely-respected experts and historians on stained glass and theology in a special series of talks entitled ‘See Through Stories: Windows on the World’ about the iconic Miracle windows at Canterbury Cathedral.

Participants will have the opportunity to view the windows prior to each talk, which will explore how these windows were made, the stories they tell, the biblical figures they illustrate and their relevance for today.

This series features six presentations by leading public speakers:

1 May
Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris (Principal, Leo Baeck College)
‘Who Do You Think You Are?: The Use of Genealogies in the Construction of Identity from the Bible to the BBC’

8 May
Professor Vincent Lloyd (Villanova University USA)
‘Ambivalence of Charisma: Moses from Hollywood to Canterbury’

15 May
Professor Ben Quash and Dr Michelle Fletcher (King’s College, London)
‘Where Do I Turn? Genesis 19 on When Things Fall Apart’

18 September
Professor Tod Linafelt (Georgetown University, USA)
‘What Does it Mean to be Human?: Adam (and Eve) Inside and Outside the Garden’

25 September
Neil McGregor (Founding Director Humboldt Forum, Berlin; former Director of the British Museum)
‘The Shepherds, the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple’

9 October
Paula Gooder (British theologian, Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral)
‘On Veiling and Unveiling: Church and Synagogue in Stained Glass and the Writings of Paul’

Tickets are £8 per talk or £35 for the series. Entrance is FREE for school students and teachers, and university students. All places, free and paid-for, must be booked online in advance.

Please arrive at 18.30 in the Cathedral, if you wish, for a view of the window(s) relevant to that evening (or at 17.30 for Choral Evensong beforehand). Each talk begins at 19.00 in the Clagett Auditorium, Cathedral Lodge/Study Centre.

Organised by the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kent, and Canterbury Cathedral. The University would like to record its thanks for the support of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral.

The Development Office will soon launch a new-look alumni website and they would like to give staff who work with alumni, and staff who are alumni a sneak peek at the new site before it goes live later this month.

You are invited to call into the Development Office in the Rutherford Annexe and the team will show you around the site and explain how you can promote alumni from your school through alumni profiles and news.

Please contact Chris Wenham on ext 3902 or alumni@kent.ac.uk to arrange a time.

The Assessment and Feedback Steering Group is holding consultation meetings with representatives from different areas of the University to discuss the proposal to introduce a Winter Assessment Period.

The paper that AFSG submitted to Education Board in February 2019 can be found on our Teaching webpages.

We invite your views on the paper. Please email your feedback/comments to afsgconsult@kent.ac.uk

The Kent Voluntary Severance Scheme (KVSS) is being launched today, Monday 15 April 2019.

You can find out more about the Scheme on our HR webpages.

If you’re interested in applying, please discuss this as soon as possible with your line manager or head of school/professional service department. The last day to request an initial KVSS quotation is Friday 7 June 2019 – or Friday 17 May 2019 if you require a pension quotation as well.

The Scheme is part of our response to the challenges facing the University and UK higher education sector, as outlined in the recent Executive Group Blog by our Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox.

This is the first stage of the scheme. KVSS will be re-opened again at relevant times and on the same terms for those staff at risk of redundancy as part of the Organising for Success Project.

If you have any questions, email our HR team KVSSenquiries@kent.ac.uk, or ask them in person at one of our informal drop-in sessions.

Drop-in sessions:

• Tuesday 16 April, 12.30 – 14.00, Senate Committee Room 1, Canterbury
• Wednesday 17 April, 12.00 – 13.30, Boardroom R2-09, Rochester Building, Medway
• Thursday 18 April, 12.30 – 14.00, Senate Committee Room 2, Canterbury
• Tuesday 23 April, 12.30 – 14.00, Senate Committee Room 2, Canterbury
• Wednesday 24 April, 12.30 – 14.00, Senate Committee Room 2, Canterbury
• Thursday 25 April, 15.00 – 16.30, Boardroom R2-09, Rochester Building, Medway

There’s no need to book, just come along. Further sessions will be held at the beginning of next term; dates to be advised.

Alumna Christina Irwin, who graduated with a BA (Hons) in History and Philosophy of Art in 2016, has recently gained a position on the Graffiti Project, part of a Canterbury Journey project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and based at Canterbury Cathedral, which is currently seeking new volunteers.

The Canterbury Journey aims to engage new, hard to reach and diverse audiences through a volunteer programme that develops and interprets Cathedral collections. The Graffiti Project is an initiative that engages volunteers in recording marks found in the eastern crypt, etchings of lost voices from the medieval world.

‘This is such a valuable project,’ explains Christina, ‘I am acquiring new skills at one of the world’s most significant  heritage sites, learning about historic collection practices and interpretation while meeting new people and sharing a passion with Cathedral professionals, volunteers and the public. It is exciting being part of this project which will become part of the Cathedral archive collections. I feel privileged to be part of this story.’

The graffiti tells us of religious devotion, fear of damnation, of love and of humour. Unlike contemporary graffiti or street art mostly seen as anti-social vandalism, medieval graffiti incised or scratched through vibrantly painted surfaces stood out clearly and would have been easily noticed suggesting that these images were totally accepted, these marks have meaning and function. There are prayers, devotional and votive, memorials, ritual apotropaic marks, compass drawn geometric designs, and five-pointed stars or pentangles, the symbol representing mathematical perfection in Ancient Greece, in abundance. There is relatively little published material about this subject and the imagery of the medieval parishioner is steeped in folklore and superstition, challenging the search for meaning.

The many voluntary opportunities can be found here.