As more of us start returning to campus and facilities begin to reopen, Mel Clewlow, Director of Sport describes how Kent Sport team members have risen to the challenge, both during lockdown and preparing for the new academic year.

Work during lockdown

‘During lockdown and throughout the summer, our members have been very much at the forefront of our minds. We set up several initiatives to support fitness, mental health & wellbeing during some challenging times, including  ‘Stay well at home Wednesdays’ led by Oli Prior, Head of Physical Activities, and offering a free trial of Les Mills on demand to our members. We also had staff contribute content such as Jenni Mullane’s dance sessions, Karen Drake’s virtual run, Gavin Connor with disco beats and Laeticia Pelacchi on workout routines.’

Kent Sport was also faced with issuing partial refunds to its members while facilities were closed for the five-month period. Susan Hickmott, Head of Business Development, led work on liaising with the University’s Information Services department to develop an online form for processing the requests, liaising with Payments Office to ensure they had all the information to process them, and working with Kent Union to ensure all students submitted in their applications. On lockdown, the Kent Sport team notified payroll immediately to pause the staff monthly deduction and advised public members of their membership options.

Vicky Annis, Head of Physiotherapy Clinic, provided free initial online physiotherapy consultations, in which over 100 people accessed and many of whom were kind enough to help raise money for NHS charities. These free consultations have now become a new offer and Vicky herself swam the English Channel to raise donations for NHS Charities Together.

Working alongside Occupational Health, Kent Sport’s fitness team also delivered a series of activities designed to “give the brain a break” and reduce stress and anxiety levels.

Reopening facilities

Christopher Monteiro-Sharratt, Head of Operations, led his team and worked relentlessly behind the scenes on getting Kent Sport facilities reopened according to Government and University’s guidelines. Liaising with the Safety, Health and Environment Unit and University’s Estates, the Kent Sport duty teams moved the cardio and fitness equipment spaces apart for social distancing, ensured our fresh air units were in great order, worked on a one-way system throughout Kent Sport facilities, and created a schedule to allow the cleaning team to do daily deep cleaning during the day.

The team also reprogrammed sessions to reduce capacities, which turned out to be a very labour-intensive task.

Advance re-introductions were organised for early August to ensure all staff were aware of the new processes and a walkthrough of the new layout of our facilities via the one-way system.

Kent Sport’s reopening also involved its marketing team, led by Susan Hickmott, communicating all the changes to the facilities, videos to showcase reopening policies and social distancing, and liaising with central communications on reopening.

In summary, Mel says: ‘The Kent Sport Team has worked hard on our reopening strategy, ensuring every consideration for a clean and safe operation has been taken into account. We opened our doors in mid-August and have implemented many new policies and procedures including a fully cashless operation and online booking system to manage our reduced capacity and shorter opening hours. Both new and returning members are being asked to visit our website to keep up to date with latest fitness and wellness timetables, our opening hours,  availability and guidelines.

‘It was truly a team effort across the board, and we were delighted to be able to reopen as soon as possible and offer activities to our staff and students within safe measures.’

The Work-Study Scheme (run by the Careers & Employability Service) have nearly 2000 keen and enthusiastic students ready to work for you! We can help you recruit to roles such as Social Media Assistant, Web Content Editor, Administrator, Research Assistant or Marketing Assistant, or shorter-term roles such as Welcome Helper or Promotional Assistant. The students appreciate the opportunity to build their employability skills further, and in turn can bring fresh ideas to your team.

We have a bank of job descriptions so if you have an opportunity that could be filled by a student, just let us know, and we can help you draft a role description. We advertise the role, can shortlist and support with interviews as needed, and undertake all employment checks and paperwork, with no cost to you – all whilst providing support to the students along the way, and ensuring they receive developmental feedback and support.

We recently hired 150+ Student Helpers to work at welcome events at Canterbury and Medway. They have been stationed across campus, welcoming new and returning students and their families, answering questions about student life, and ensuring that no one is left lonely on campus by being a friendly presence. They have also assisted with the Office Lockdown Escape Room, bushcraft and life skills activities, and delivering Campus Tours. These students are all ready to work, hold a contract and have undertaken all appropriate checks, had an induction and even  have a Student Helper t-shirt and face shield, so if you need any to support your welcome activities, or longer-term roles, please do let us know!

We have limited funding available, which can be used to match-fund your costs fifty-fifty, where appropriate (students earn £9.40 per hour if they are under 25, £9.99 per hour if over 25, with no cost to you). We undertake all the employment checks, contract paperwork and training – all we need to know is how many you need, where, when, and their duties, and we recharge costs back to you once the work is completed.

Contact Hannah Greer and Jen Davey on workstudy@kent.ac.uk for more information, or to hire Student Helpers.

Our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support, including weekly webinars.

This week’s (Monday 28 September – Friday 2 October) webinars are as follows:

Monday 28 September 2020 –  ‘How Care first can support you & an update on our services’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link.

Tuesday 29 September 2020 – ‘Positive Minds’
Time: 12.30-13.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 30 September 2020 –  ‘Fake News’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday  1 October 2020 – ‘Returning to the Workplace
Time: 12.00-13.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 2 October 2020 – ‘Work Life Balance’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

A thank you from Professor Richard Reece:

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the University, and particularly on behalf of our students, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks and appreciation for all of the work that you have done to ensure that the campus has been so ready to welcome students this week, and begin teaching for the majority of students next week.

We are living through extraordinary times and it is hard to imagine, even just thinking back to January, that the University experience over the course of the 2020/21 academic year could have changed so radically. For many students, the experience of starting (or restarting) their university life is a stressful and disorienting one. I wanted to take this moment, therefore, to thank all of you for your diligence and generosity as we work together to respond as circumstances require. I have been enormously impressed with the dedication, commitment and skill that all of you have brought to ensuring that we are as ready as we can be for the start of the new term.

I literally cannot say ‘thank you’ enough. The changeable times that we have all encountered since lock-down foster tremendous levels of anxiety and bring each and every one of us face-to-face with profound uncertainty, with worry for loved ones, and with dislocation in all aspects of our lives. By continuing to work together, in a collegiate, supportive and kind way, I have no doubt that that we will overcome undoubted obstacles that we will face as the term progresses.

With many best wishes,

Professor Richard Reece| Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)

(Watch Richard Reece’s thank you on this YouTube video)

With your Kent email address, you can benefit from free upgrades to a wide range of FutureLearn courses.

As a Kent student or staff member, all you need to do is connect your University email address with your FutureLearn account using this FutureLearn Campus link and verify your email address. You don’t need to already have a FutureLearn account.

This is a great resource for staff and students wishing to supplement their studies, professional and personal development too. There are a wide range of courses available under this offer, including courses created by the University of Kent and other institutions. On completion, you will receive a free certificate of achievement and perpetual access.

At present, this offer is available until the end of December 2020.

Do you communicate with the media in your role?

Colleagues who would like to learn about working with the media are invited to enrol on  Why The Media Matters, a series of short films, audio, text and scenarios covering topics from understanding the media landscape to how best to respond to journalist requests.

Produced by Inside Edge, the University’s media training partner, Why The Media Matters is intended to be an introduction to the benefits and importance of media engagement.

The training is available for all staff but recommended for anyone who has to communicate with the media as part of their role and the resources can be found by clicking this Staff Training Moodle link and reviewing the Personal Effectiveness category.

For further information or to discuss any aspect of media training or engagement, please contact Gary Hughes, the University’s Head of Press relations.

Kent Hospitality have reopened their catering outlets for the 2020/21 academic year.

Bag It, Create (takeaway only), Dolche Vita, Hut 8, K-Bar, Mungo’s, No.1, Origins, Rutherford Dining Hall, Sibson Café (takeaway only), The Galvanising Shop Café and The Street Kitchen are now open. For the most recent opening times for each outlet, please visit the catering website.

As of Monday 21 September the Gulbenkian Café will also be serving hot food to eat in and takeaway.

Please note that The Sports Café in the Sports Centre will be closed until further notice.

Although our outlets are running reduced menus, we are still offering a wide variety of dishes; including the Katsu Chicken from Dolche Vita, street food from The Street Kitchen and classic burgers from Origins.

If you have any questions, please email catering@kent.ac.uk

Professor Yong Yan from the University’s School of Engineering and Digital Arts has received the highest accolade in the field of instrumentation and measurement with a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Yong Yan was one of 50 engineers admitted to the Royal Academy of Engineering at its annual meeting on 22 September. He was recognised for his “distinctive contribution to improving combustion efficiency and lowering emissions through innovation in electronic instrumentation and successful development of novel instruments, thereby making an important impact on the power industry nationally and internationally”.

Commenting on the Fellowship, Yong said: ‘I am very honoured and extremely privileged to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, one of the most prestigious engineering institutions in the world.’

He added: ‘The Fellowship is only awarded to an engineer who has made exceptional contributions in any field of engineering. It will enable me to perform at a higher level in my research and teaching with a range of support and services from the Academy. The recognition will also help me promote the importance of measurement science and engineering to the UK and the wider world.’

Yong is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). He was recently awarded the gold medal as the most published author of all time in the UK from the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, a leading journal in the field of electrical and electronic engineering. He has published more than 470 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Early career

Yong studied for BEng and MSc degrees at Tsinghua University, Beijing, before coming to the UK in 1989 to study for a PhD degree at Teesside. He joined the University of Kent in Canterbury in 2004 from the University of Greenwich (Medway Campus).

‘I joined Kent,’ he said, ‘because it has the best research facility and support in my area of research, including a well-equipped instrumentation laboratory and technical support for applied engineering research.’

Role at Kent

As Professor of Electronic Instrumentation in the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, Professor Yan contributes to teaching, research and administration. He was the School Director of Research from 2008 to 2018. Since 2018, he has been the School Director of Innovation, playing a leading role in promotion of engineering innovation and collaborations with industry, as well as managing the Year in Industry modules. Professor Yan also heads the Instrumentation and Control Research Group, including coordination of our REF submission in this area.