Kent Hospitality were delighted with the news that Derek Goss, Accommodation Manager, and Gary Sayles, Executive Manager: Housekeeping, both won awards at the latest Association for Student Residential Accommodation (ASRA) South East Regional Meeting.
Taking place on Wednesday 12 June, the South East Regional Meeting saw Derek Goss awarded ‘Residence Initiative of the Year’ for putting in place a new ‘moderated living’ initiative for 2019-20 arriving students.
On winning the award, Derek commented “I was delighted to receive this award recognising the Accommodation Office’s efforts to improve many students residential experience at The University of Kent.”
The initiative allows students to select a ‘moderated living’ option when applying for University accommodation, whereby like-minded students who want to live in a quieter or alcohol restricted environment can live together in a dedicated location on campus.
Gary Sales, who won the ‘Best Student Community’ award added “We were happily surprised to receive the Best Student Community award as nominated by the ASRA Southeast Regional members and judging panel.
While the teams’ job descriptions concentrate on the cleaning aspects of the job, the Commercial Services and Kent Hospitality primary philosophy is always placing the student first.
We are so pleased that the teams efforts and innovations have been recognised and we look forward to enhancing our offering and continuing to make positive impacts.”
Since September 2018, Gary has been introducing ways to engage students in keeping their accommodation clean. Housekeeper visits are encouraged to be conversational, focusing on social and cleaning skills checks with students to help aid them in the transition to university life and living away from home. Service changes to provide monthly deep cleans to aid student efforts in maintaining their accommodation and implementing an evening cleaning service for set public areas on campus were also well received.
Nominations for awards came from regional ASRA members as well as attendees at the event on the day with the awards recognising initiatives that brought a ‘unique and creative addition to their residence community this year’.