The Guardian University Awards 2020 are now open and entries are welcome until the final deadline of Friday 7 February.

The Guardian is inviting entries from UK higher education institutions across 14 categories, which will be shortlisted and judged by an expert panel. Winners will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony in April. Corporate Communications will again be co-ordinating Kent’s award entries this year and is happy to support schools/departments with their submissions.

This year’s Guardian University Award categories are listed below and, with only a couple of exceptions, any projects nominated must have started within the last 18 months.

1. Staff experience
2. Business collaboration
3. Digital innovation
4. Employability and entrepreneurship
5. Internationalisation
6. Marketing and comms campaigns
7. Research impact
8. Course design, retention and student outcomes
9. Social and community impact
10. Student experience
11. Buildings that inspire
12. Sustainability
13. Teaching excellence
14. Widening access and outreach

You can find out more about the awards on the Guardian webpages.

Please do get in touch with Corporate Communications asap if you know of a project that we should be considering for this year’s awards – email us on communications@kent.ac.uk.

Back by popular demand all University staff are invited to a very special Gulbenkian open day on Friday 17 January from 11.00 to 14.00.

You can:

-Meet our team

-Find out what’s on in 2020 and learn about your staff discounts

-Hear about our £100,000 redevelopment of the Café/Foyer space

-Taste the best coffee on campus (oh yes it is!) and fresh food from our chefs

-Find out how you can hire our spaces, volunteer, or become more involved with your arts centre here on campus

-And much more!

We look forward to seeing you then.

From 1 February 2020, the University is introducing PensionsPlus to help offset the cost of saving for your retirement.

PensionsPlus is a new way to make contributions to your SAUL or USS pension scheme, which reduces your National Insurance deductions and means you take home more pay than you would outside of PensionsPlus.

All salaried staff will be automatically opted in to PensionsPlus from 1 February 2020 unless they choose to opt out before 31 January 2020. An opt out form is available on Staff Connect.

You can find out more about the way PensionsPlus works, and calculate how it will affect your take-home pay, on the PensionsPlus webpages.

Or you can attend a presentation/drop-in session this month (January) to obtain more information and ask questions:

-Drop-in – Tuesday 14 January, 09.00-11.00 (Cornwallis East Seminar Room 1, Canterbury)

-Presentation – Friday 17 January, 10.30-11.30 (Grimond Lecture Theatre 3, Canterbury)

-Drop-in – Monday 20 January, 17.00-19.00 (Keynes Seminar Room 15, Canterbury)

-Drop-in – Thursday 23 January, 11.00-14.00 (Keynes Seminar Room 20, Canterbury)

-Drop-in – Tuesday 28 January, 15.00-17.00 (Peter Brown Room, Canterbury)

All staff are welcome. There is no need to book in advance.

The Dean for Internationalisation, Dr Anthony Manning is pleased to invite you to the University’s annual Global Showcase Event (formerly known as the Internationalisation Forum), which will take place at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses this January.

Canterbury Showcase:

When: Wednesday 15 January 2020

Where: the Darwin Conference Suites

Time: 09.30 – 12.30

Sign up for Canterbury here

Medway Showcase: 

When: Friday 24 January 2020

Where: Medway Campus (Room TBC)

Time: 10.00 – 11.30

Sign up for Medway here

For further information please contact:

T: 01227 823908

E:deaninternational@kent.ac.uk

www.kent.ac.uk/global

New Year – new decade – time for a change?

It’s that time of the year when many of us start to think about what changes we can make to enrich our lives. We’ve had a long break over Christmas and New Year and often this triggers us to consider what we can do to be healthier, fitter, more ethical, or more relaxed. We’re all different and follow our own rhythms in life so, if we’re considering new initiatives to make us feel better, it’s worth taking time to focus on what’s best and most sustainable for us.

There are five categories of activity that wellbeing and mental health organisations recommend to help us all increase our feelings of wellbeing:

*Connect – with the people around you ie family, friends, colleagues, neighbours or in your local community
*Be active – go for a walk or run, cycle, play a game, garden or dance
*Take notice – be observant, look for something beautiful or remark on something unusual
*Keep learning
*Give.

Whatever changes you may be considering, you can connect them to one of these five steps to Wellbeing. Attach your New Year’s aim or resolution to this wider concept and you may find it easier to maintain!

The University of Kent Wellbeing Zone has lots of material to help guide you with any new resolution. Take a self-assessment of your wellbeing to get an idea of your starting point and plan some goals to track your improvements. There are recipes for health eating, exercise plans to increase activity and a variety of articles including sleep, mental health, Dry January and yoga at your desk. The resource is free and totally confidential.

So, whatever your plan is, think about using the Wellbeing Zone to help you achieve it. For more information visit the Wellbeing Zone website

You know Kent students better than anyone. If you think you know someone who’d make a great leader then we’d love to know. Many Officers are first recommended to us by staff and we’re asking for your help to identify potential candidates. At this stage we would contact the student for an informal chat, so no pressure or commitment.

Each year five students are elected by their peers to shape the shape their students’ union and represent the student voice to the University. If you think you know a student who has what it takes, recommend a leader using the form below and we’ll do the rest.

 Recommend a leader by 3 February 2020

All Kent students and staff can now get Microsoft Office 365 for free!

You can use programmes like Word, PowerPoint and Excel on:

-up to five laptops/computers (Windows or Mac)

-up to five tablets and phones (Windows, Android or iOS)

Find out more about how to install Office 365 in our Software for students and staff guide.