Ben Hutchinson, Professor of European Literature in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, has recently published a new book titled The Midlife Mind (Reaktion Books, 2020).

The meaning of life is a common concern, but what is the meaning of midlife? With the help of illustrious writers such as Dante, Montaigne, Beauvoir, Goethe and Beckett, The Midlife Mind sets out to answer this question.

Ben says: “Part literary biography, part non-fiction autobiography, this book constitutes a ‘memoir of the middle’. Just as we are all supposed to be middle-class now, so we all seem to be middle-aged. But what does this term even mean? Meditating on what it means to be nel mezzo del cammin, this book represents a transparent attempt to work through my own midlife crisis. I’m not sure it’s worked, but it’s been fun trying.”

We are hosting the next Virtual Open Events on the following dates: 

Undergraduate Virtual Open Event on Saturday 14 November 2020, from 10.00 – 14.00 (UK Time)

Postgraduate Virtual Open Event on Wednesday 18 November 2020, from 12.00 – 15.00 (UK Time)

Our last undergraduate event in October saw 2,360 bookings with 46% attending, that’s 1,652 visitors on the day, as it’s a virtual event we’re able to keep the link live for longer and saw new attendees join the event each day. Virtual open days are a great opportunity to all potential students to engage with course presentations from our specialist academics and attend live Q&A sessions, as well as find out more about our facilities on campus.

Preparations for the event are underway and those who are taking part have been informed by the Recruitment team

It would be a great help if our Staff could promote the virtual event across their platforms, either on their school websites and on social channels, to attend the events, you will need to register for your place – using the link below.  As well as forwarding on to friends or family members who may be interested in our courses at Kent. Please see further information about the events:

Undergraduate event 

Postgraduate event

Here’s some positive feedback from the last undergraduate open day on 3 October: 

‘I found the open day very insightful into the culture of the University of Kent.’

‘It was extremely helpful as there was a mixture of students currently doing the course, and tutors, so we get a few different perspectives on the course that you want to apply for.’

‘An excellent day made the university very appealing. Everyone was really helpful and friendly.’

‘Dr Rosie Wyles was very inspiring and enthusiastic!! Could not have asked for more!’

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (2018) requires the University to make sure digital content is accessible to everyone by September 2020, ensuring that all our digital content is ‘perceivable, operable, understandable and robust’ in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA accessibility standard.

What this means is that all of us who produce or share University documents need to make sure they meet accessibility standards.

The standards apply to digital resources we share with students, colleagues, or members of the public by digital means (e.g., by website, Moodle, email, SharePoint, Teams etc). Accessible content is better content and will enable a wider and broader range of users to understand, or act on, your key messages.

Once you know how to do this, creating accessible content becomes second nature and we have lots of guidance to help you:

• Review the guidance in our accessible content guides to help you produce documents, presentations, video, and web pages that meet the regulation requirements.
• Continue to follow the Kent Inclusive Practices (KIPs) 
• All video-based content (including KentPlayer recordings) will need to have closed captions available to students from September 2020. To help meet this requirement all new KentPlayer recordings will have closed captions automatically applied. Further information on KentPlayer captions and how to edit them, is available on the University’s Captions in KentPlayer guide.
• The Digitally Enhanced Education – A Guide to Teaching Online course has been designed to help academic colleagues from around the institution transition their teaching online and includes a focus on digital accessibility throughout.

The Kent accessibility pages are the main source of digital accessibility information and will be constantly updated.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact : opera@kent.ac.uk

We all have a responsibility to ensure that the digital content we create is accessible to all so that the digital experience of students and staff is as good as it can be.

Professor Richard J Reece 
Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Education and Student Experience

No matter where you’re working from, whether from home or on campus, these top 10 tips from Sarah Fisher, User Experience and Digital Content Officer, will help you make the most of Kent IT services.

1. Save your work to the cloud

Have you used your OneDrive yet? It’s the online equivalent of a personal folder to save your work and access it anywhere. You can easily share documents with colleagues for comment and collaborative working. See our OneDrive for Business guide

2. Chat online, and collaborate around topics

Microsoft Teams lets you have audio, video or text chats with staff and students online. Don’t just use the chat feature: ask for a team or a channel to get the full benefits of shared storage space for organising work around a theme. You can set up a team and different channels to help you more easily work within your team, and across teams and silos. Save files to Teams if a specific group of staff will benefit from accessing it on a regular basis. See the Teams guide

3. Microsoft 365 offers so much more

You can organise your to do list, plan project work across teams,  record meetings and share video, create an online calendar for booking resources, and more. Check out the different apps now available in our Microsoft 365 guide

4. New: Software Finder

Find the software and apps to help both staff and students work and study in our expanded Software Finder. The site started out as a directory of recommended productivity tools, but now houses all the software that Kent buys on your behalf. It tells you what’s available on staff and student PCs as well as your own devices, and how to access it. For a quick overview and to use it, see our Software guide

5. Slow internet day? Restart your router

If you’re internet is slower than usual and its affecting your access to Kent resources, restarting your internet router can really help.

We recommend giving your web router a weekly reboot if you can. Turn it off for a few minutes and then turn it back on to see the difference. Make it a Monday morning task to start the week with full speed ahead!

6. Stay connected with virtual tea breaks

Virtual tea breaks are so important when you’re working from home. Many teams have regular tea breaks once a day so that everyone gets the opportunity for human connection. MS Teams makes this easy to set up: set up a Teams meeting as a recurring calendar appointment.

7. Time your meetings to include microbreaks

To make sure everyone can take breaks between online meetings, limit them to 50-55 minutes rather than a full hour. Try not to commit to attending two or three meetings consecutively without giving yourself a break!

8. How is your home office set up?

Did you know you can move a wired PC to anywhere in the house? It doesn’t have to be within reach of a network connection. A network power socket adaptor will let you connect to the internet via a power socket.

Remember too that you need to optimise the space to make sure your set up is ergonomic. Log into the University of Kent workstation assessment tool if you want to check.

9. Only use the VPN when necessary!

Our Forticlient VPN is there to help connect to the Kent network when you need it. Try and remember to disconnect from it when you no longer need it. You don’t need it to use Teams or OneDrive. If everyone disconnected when not needed this would help improve its speed for everyone else. More about VPN and how to access it

10. New Library and IT website

Find out about the range of services on offer and how to access them. Have a look to see what you can benefit from, or to ask us for help with any of our services: kent.ac.uk/library

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced a new three-tier system to ‘simplify and standardise’ coronavirus lockdown across England.  The new system will see different parts of the country placed in one of three categories dependent on rates of infection.  At present, Canterbury and Medway are still seeing comparatively low rates, and at this point are in the lowest tier of restrictions. I would like to thank all staff and students in our community, who are all contributing to keeping each other safe by continuing to follow guidance on hand-washing, face coverings and keeping social distance. To date, the number of positive cases among our staff and students continues to be low.

We continue to operate in accordance with Government guidelines, combined with Health and Safety advice and support from the local Health Protection teams in Kent and Medway and to deliver a mix of face-to-face and online activities for our students. This approach, of course, varies from programme to programme, colleagues are keeping all of this activity under review and will make adjustments to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both staff and students. We have a range of support in place for both staff and students and will continue to respond to concerns as they arise.  As I mentioned last week, plans are being are being put in place across the University to enable us to respond to any changes we might be required to make in the delivery of our core activities. We will continue to update our Covid webpages on a regular basis.

This week the Government also announced that next year’s GCSEs and A/AS levels will be held three weeks later to help address the disruptions caused by Covid-19. A/AS level results will be on 24 August and we will now begin to look at what this might mean for our admissions processes.

With my greatest thanks for all the hard work that is taking place across the University at this challenging time.

My very best wishes go to you and your families.

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

Canterbury has been selected as a location for an exciting 12-month electric scooter trial, launching in the coming weeks.

Initially the trial will run on a controlled set route, on cycle lanes, minor roads and selected paths, serving students and staff from the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University.

You can use the electric scooters as an easy way to get around without the need for car travel, therefore reducing your carbon footprint and easing congestion.  The scooters are all GPS connected and the speed can be set remotely depending on where they are. In busier areas the speed will be walking pace, and in cycle lanes they will go up to 15mph. If the scooters deviate from the approved route, they will slow down and stop.

The electric scooter scheme is a joint venture between the city and county councils and a leading electric scooter sharing company, Bird. Currently Bird operates in more than 100 cities across the globe.

During our trial, the e-scooters will use the same road space as bicycles and will not be allowed on the pavement or outside of the trial area. This is in line with the government guidelines.

If successful, it will be opened up to a broader area, helping the whole community get around without creating congestion or harmful emissions.

You can learn more about the electric scooter trial on the Canterbury city council blog.