The Music department’s curated Lunchtime Concert series returns this month, as we welcome sitarist and composer, Jonathan Mayer, to launch the new series.

The concert series, which is open to all and free to attend, brings some of the best performers to Colyer-Fergusson Hall, and this term sees some exciting links with the University’s musical community.

In a change to the normal procedure, entry is by free ticket only, which needs to be booked in advance – please see the website for details

The Music department is grateful to Furley Page Solicitors for sponsoring the Lunchtime Concerts.

Celebrate the festive season in style with us at Kent this year.

We’re excited to announce that Christmas Parties on the Canterbury campus are now open and taking bookings.

We have packages to suit all tastes, from organised Christmas Party Nights on Thursday 9 or Thursday 16 December in Darwin Suite with an indulgent 3-course meal and entertainment, or exclusive use of Darwin Suite for your own private festive event with seasonal menus, drinks and entertainment packages.

Or for something truly different, why not bring some festive wonder to your Christmas party and hold your event outdoors in our large marquee overlooking Canterbury Cathedral? Bespoke packages are available from festive BBQs and hog roasts, to canapés and Champagne topped off with a snow machine for a Winter Wonderland experience.

Plus, our Conference and Events Team are on hand to take the stress out of the organisation for you during this busy time.

So, whatever your plans, support Kent this season by keeping your spend on campus and count on us for fun-filled celebrations and a night to remember.

Find out more on the Christmas Parties webpages or send an enquiry via this form.

The E-Learning Team are pleased to announce that the next event in our series of ‘Digitally Enhanced Education webinars’ will take place on Wednesday 27 October at the slightly later time of 14:00 – 16:30 (BST), with the theme ‘Pedagogy and Practice when Teaching Online’.

Please find the agenda for the event below:

14:00 – 14:05 – Phil Anthony: Introduction

14:05 – 14:20 – Associate Professor Rachel Bolton-King (Staffordshire University): 5 Steps to Rethink your Remote Pedagogy

14:20 – 14:35 – Mary Jacob (Aberystwyth University): Dialogic feedback in online group tutorials

14:35 – 14:50 – Professor Phil Race: Assessment: Do we measure what we’ve taught, or something else?

14:50 – 15:05 – Michael Natzler (Hepi): Thinking about the student voice

15:05 – 15:20 – Chris Douce (Open University): Getting published in a peer reviewed journal

15:20 – 15:30 – Break

15:30 – 15:45 – Vikki Anderson, Susan Onens & Karl Nightingale (University of Birmingham): Audio feedback. A step towards a more inclusive curriculum

15:45 – 16:00 – Zoë Allman (Associate Dean, De Montfort University): Mental wellbeing for all

16:00 – 16:15 – Flower Darby (Northern Arizona University): Practical tips for engaging students via online forums

16:15 – 16:30 – Dr Peter Horneffer (All American Institute of Medical Sciences): Applying Evidence-based Strategies For Effective Teaching in Digital Classrooms

If you would like to join the webinar series, please express your interest here if you haven’t already. We will add you the Microsoft Team linked to the series.  Colleagues from outside the University are very welcome to join and so feel free to circulate.

If you would like to present at a future event, please complete this form and Phil Anthony will be in touch.

We hope to see you there.

Want to get active and have some fun too? Enter a team for this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Cup, a light-hearted competition for staff across Kent, regardless of ability.

Once a month, departments compete activities ranging from rounders and volleyball to ultimate Frisbee, pub games and more! Most activities take place during the lunch hour (12.00-13.00 or 13.00-14.00) and span the academic year, starting with ‘It’s A Knockout’ on Tuesday 2 November 2021 and culminating in The Quiz event on Monday 12 September 2022. The Quiz event will be followed by a closing ceremony, usually held in the Pavilion Café Bar with a buffet for all attendees to enjoy food and drinks in between quiz rounds and crowning event winners.

Charlie Dast, Sports Development Officer, says: ‘Not only is the VC’s Cup a great opportunity to get up, move around and break up your work day, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to meet staff you may have never encountered in different departments across the University.’

Charlie, together with his colleagues Karen, Billy and Amy, will be on hand throughout the contest to look after participants. To date, 15 teams/departments have signed up, including: Research Innovation Services, Kent Business School, HR, Estates, Natural Sciences, Campus Security, Human and Social Sciences, Kent & Medway Medical School. But there’s still time to enter your own team! Deadline for entries is Friday 15 October 2021 at 17.00 – get your entry in now by emailing sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk.

You can find out more about the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup, what’s happening and when, on the VC’s Cup webpages.

The Sports Development Team looks forward to hearing from you!

On Wednesday 15 September the inaugural KMMS Prize-Giving event took place. For the first time, KMMS celebrated the academic success of many of its students and the hard work and excellence of its staff.

Many of the generous benefactors who donated prizes joined the event in the Lecture Theatre of KMMS’s new Pears building at the University of Kent.  Prizes were awarded in three different categories: student prizes, achievement awards and five awards given by MedSoc, the medical student society.

The MedSoc prize for “Making a Difference to Student Experience” went to the KMMS Librarian Manfred Gschwandtner.

The Vice-President of MedSoc introduced the prize:

“The first prize is for making a difference to student experience. This prize was awarded to the member of staff that students feel made the biggest positive difference to their experience at KMMS this year.

There were 8 nominees for this year, but one, in particular, shone through. This person was always on hand to problem solve and does so with willingness and passion. He does a lot of work behind the scenes and in the teaching sessions he has delivered, his passion shines through. Not only this, but he also secured revision resource ‘Osmosis’ for students which they say has made a huge difference to their learning.”

Manfred explains:

“This prize is a collaborative achievement for my library colleagues at University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and the Drill Hall Library, Medway campus who have worked tirelessly to provide excellent support to KMMS students. It comes after an intensive two-year set up period for the KMMS library and the first year of providing library services across different campuses.

We made sure that our first year students had access to the library resources they needed for their studies including textbooks, journals and innovative new learning resources such as RX Bricks, Osmosis and Complete Anatomy, an up-to-date anatomy app  as part of our ‘digital first’ strategy which aimed to provide all core resources in a digital format. Joined up reading lists and a dedicated KMMS LibrarySearch catalogue were developed that allow students to search for library resources easily across the two universities’ libraries.

KMMS academics helped students to develop the necessary skills to best utilise the library resources by embedding information and digital literacy teaching in the curriculum. There has also been extensive support from the institutions’ front line services, ensuring a streamlined student experience including the introduction of a courier service between universities so students can return their books at either library”.

Caption: Manfred Gschwandtner is presented his award by Mimoza Osmani, Vice-President and Mary McDonald, President, MedSoc.

Experts from the University of Kent’s Centre for Child Protection are sharing research expertise on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and parent-infant interventions in a series of two, free thought-provoking webinars.

The webinars offer professionals concerned with child protection and the safeguarding of children an opportunity to update their knowledge and gain insights that will help inform their practice in the field.

Tackling the challenges to investigating and prosecuting crimes of child sexual exploitation in England – What works?

Wednesday 20 October, 10:00 – 11:00

Presenter: Dr Aravinda Kosaraju, Lecturer in Child Protection at the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) and Acting Director of Studies for the MA in Advanced Child Protection Programme

What will it cover? Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) has become popularly recognised as a complex crime and as a ‘national threat’ within policy discourses in England. Yet, prosecutions of these crimes are not proportionate to the number of cases reported.

This webinar briefly explores the challenges to investigating and prosecuting crimes of CSE.  Dr Kosaraju will highlight what works in tackling the challenges experienced in providing effective criminal justice responses to crimes of CSE and will draw from her PhD research analysing data from policy texts as well as interviews and focus group discussions with practitioners working to tackle CSE in England.

Who is it for? All are welcome to attend but this thought-provoking webinar is likely to be of particular interest to child protection professionals concerned with the safeguarding of children from sexual abuse. It will be particularly beneficial to practitioners from law enforcement, social care, education, health, prosecution, probation, CSE specialist teams and youth services.

Register now on Eventbrite

Influencing factors on the outcomes and experiences of parent-infant interventions within Child Protection. 

Wednesday 10 November, 10.00 – 11.00

Presenter: Dr Alice Loving, Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Child Protection

What will it cover? This webinar will include a discussion of the key findings from Dr Loving’s doctoral thesis, which focused on influencing factors on the experience and outcomes of parent-infant intervention within child protection.

The interventions that families took part in included parent-infant psychotherapy, and/or residential placements in assessment units or parent-infant foster placements. For the participants who were successful and returned to the community with their children four ‘change facilitator’ themes were identified:

• ‘Acceptance’
• ‘Determination’
• ‘Mentalization’
• and ‘Connection with past trauma’.

For the group whose babies were removed from their care, the key themes from their interviews comprised three ‘change inhibitors’:

• ‘Denial’
• ‘Low Mentalization’
• and ‘Disconnect with past trauma’.

This webinar will include a detailed discussion of both the ‘Change facilitators’ and the ‘Change inhibitors and the importance of using these findings to help strengthen assessments and, most importantly, provide more effective interventions within child protection.

Who is it for? This webinar is likely to be relevant for any professional working in a child protection setting. It offers practitioners important information to consider within their practice.

Register now on Eventbrite