The Transport Team are encouraging students and staff to interact with @unikent_travel on social media by opening a Transport competition with prizes.

The prizes include vouchers for various food outlets on Canterbury campus and the winner will be announced on Friday 17 December 2021.

To enter the competition:

• Get a picture – this can be a photo you have taken or one that you have created.
• Think of a good caption – either promoting road safety or sustainable travel home for Christmas.
• Post the image and caption – you can post this on Twitter and/or Instagram.
• Tag @unikent_travel in your post to enter the competition.

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

Usually when we put together updates for students and staff, we are thinking of the broad community at Kent that we are all part of. However, with today being the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I want to prompt discussion between one group in particular – the men who study, live and work across our campuses.

There is no doubting the extra poignance of today after a year which has seen such hurt, anger and public outcry following high profile and appalling events such as the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. More recently, the reported rise in drink spiking has brought into sharp focus a deep-seated culture of violence, and potential violence, towards women that plays out both nationally and on our university campuses.

If we are completely honest, the way these acts of violence are discussed all too often places the onus on women to protect themselves – don’t dress in a particular way; don’t drink too much; don’t leave your drink unattended; don’t accept a drink from someone you don’t know. It is especially painful to hear testimony from women about how systemic violence can force them to think along these lines when simply trying to enjoy a night out. Far from getting to the heart of the problem, these approaches detract from it and place the blame at the wrong door – putting expectations on the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators.

While some may find this challenging, the real message here is much more straightforward. Men need to stop being violent towards women. Harassment is a crime. This is our problem and we need to own it. It is a simple fact that the overwhelming majority of violent acts against women are perpetrated by men. Trying to brush past this as the behaviour of a minority of us misses the point – just because you are not personally violent does not give you the right to ignore, or worse tacitly condone, the experiences of so many women in our community.

As men, we all need to ask ourselves the hard questions. Am I prepared to challenge others when they are acting inappropriately? Do I call out supposed jokes or comments that over-step the mark? Am I clear that I do not have a right to women’s attention or their bodies? At times this may not be easy, or it may not make you popular – however, it is incumbent on us to both change and encourage change wherever we can.

Both the University and Kent Union will continue to do all we can to keep the women of our community safe, including launching our new Consent. Get it. Full Stop campaign this week. We will continue to promote specialist support for those who are victims/survivors of violence, and we’ve more work to do with our partners to ensure all of our venues both are and feel as secure as possible. But that alone is not enough. Men must own violence against women as our issue to address, not theirs. It is only when we do this that things will genuinely improve to the benefit of all.

If you have been affected by sexual misconduct, assault or harassment, through our Report + Support tool we hope to empower you to record details of any incidents and to ensure you can gain access to support from a specialist adviser when you need it. You can also discuss your options for reporting an incident formally or you can choose to remain anonymous – you are in control and we are here to support you.

Staff can report sexual misconduct, assault or harassment using the staff online reporting tool and attend Active Bystanders training. Staff can also choose to remain anonymous when making a report.

#ConsentGetIt

With more of us working on campus at least part of the time, it is essential that we all continue to keep safety at the front of our minds.   

 Key to ensuring everyone stays safe is regular testing and reporting of results.  

Everyone coming onto campus should continue to take a Covid lateral flow test twice a week. You can get walk-in tests or pick up take-home kits from the Old Bank on our Canterbury campus or the Old Sports Hall at Medway, or order them online.   

Reporting is also critical to supporting the national effort to counter Covid. If you are using a home test kit, please remember to report your lateral flow test results to the NHS, using the postcode CT2 7FS, whether they are positive or negative – instructions on how to do this should come with the testing kit itself.    

If you have symptoms or if you do test positive, you must self-isolate for 10 days from the day your symptoms started and get a PCR test as quickly as possible. If your PCR test is positive, please let your line manager know and also email covidsupport@kent.ac.uk.   

If someone in your household tests positive, and even if your own test is negative, you are encouraged to work at home if you can during the self-isolation period. If your role is not normally one that works remotely, please talk to your line manager about any work you can do from home. If there is no work you can do remotely, please remain away from work for the duration of the isolation period (if you are living with someone with Covid-19) or until you have had a negative PCR test (for a close contact)  

Other ways we can do our bit to stay  safe are:  

Vaccinations – A key component in national efforts against Covid. If you qualify for a booster jab,  you are strongly encouraged to get one if you can.   

Face coverings – We strongly encourage and recommend that staff and students wear face coverings in crowded indoor spaces, particularly if meeting people from outside their area. Face coverings are available free of charge from any student reception desk.  

Ventilation – We are monitoring buildings and rooms across campus to ensure they meet Government guidelines on airflow. Keeping a window open supports this and our ‘virtual first’ approach to staff meetings also helps reduce the number of gatherings. If you wish to double-check airflow levels in your area, get in touch with Estates Customer Services to borrow a CO2 monitor.  

Following checks by our Estates team, some of our teaching spaces have reduced capacity. If you’re teaching in these rooms, you’ll need to follow ‘user instructions’ on ventilation. You can find out which rooms this applies to, and check on any changes ahead of your class, on the live teaching room spreadsheet on our Estates webpages. Useful guidance on ventilation is also available from our SHE team. 

From Martin Atkinson, Director of HR and Organisational Development

As you know, members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Kent will be taking industrial action in the form of a national strike next week from Wednesday 1 to Friday 3 December, along with a period of Action Short of a Strike (ASOS). While these are national disputes, the issues involved are important – we take them very seriously at Kent and recognise the strength of feeling among some of our staff around them.

With that in mind, I wanted to update you all on what we are doing to address the different concerns being raised – those who are available can also come to a Staff Webchat tomorrow (Thursday 25 November) from 13.00-1400 where you can ask any questions you may have about this directly; I appreciate this is very short notice so the recording of this will also be shared afterwards.

USS Pensions

The dispute over pensions is long-running and extremely regrettable. Proposed changes to the scheme are currently being consulted on, and we have had an ongoing, constructive dialogue with UCU and staff representatives on it over a number of months. At its heart, disagreement nationally is over the valuation of the USS pension scheme and changes to benefits deemed necessary to address its current deficit. Given the very real risk of unaffordable rises in both employer and employee contributions if agreement isn’t reached, our view is that the proposal put forward by Universities UK currently under consultation is the least worst option available at this time, but we are also calling for a review of the scheme’s wider governance to be carried out without delay and ahead of the next valuation – there is more information on this on our USS Pension Staff Webpages.

Pay and Conditions

There is no denying that recent months have been challenging for our community and I know I speak for all of us on the Executive Group when I say we are determined to put this right. While there is always more to do, there are also areas where we have real progress to build on:

• In the absence of a national agreement with trade unions on pay, in August along with the rest of the sector, we implemented pay increases of between 1.5% and 3.6% to make sure our staff are fairly rewarded within our current financial constraints. In addition, last year we reviewed our Reward Strategy to ensure competitiveness, consistency and transparency in our pay policies.
  
  
• We have done a great deal of work since 2018 to reduce the inappropriate use of timesheet contracts across the University, including introducing new contract types, removing zero hours contracts for teaching staff and agreeing principles with UCU regarding the future use of hourly-paid lecturers. We can, and do, actively deal with exceptions to this when we are made aware of them.
  
  
• We are also fully committed to addressing equality-related pay gaps and have made real progress towards closing the gender pay gap – over the last three years our mean gender pay gap in favour of male colleagues has reduced from 17.9% to 14.3% and the median gap from 13.7% to 8.2%. We will shortly start work with our staff and trade union representatives on our next Equal Pay Audit to help us identify and address the pay gaps across gender, ethnicity and disability.

Workload remains a serious issue, not helped by national staff recruitment challenges since the pandemic. We are, however, taking practical steps to ease the pressure on staff: our new KentVision project manager is working closely with key stakeholders to address the most pressing issues with the system; this will take time and I can only reiterate our apology for the significant impact the initial rollout of this has had on staff. Elsewhere, we will shortly share a staff survey put together with our Wellbeing Working Group to help us identify and then address specific areas where workload is impacting on our mental health.

There is still plenty of work to do, but I’m confident that our plans will make real improvements to life at work for all our staff over the coming months and we will continue to engage constructively with UCU and with all of our trade union and staff representatives on these issues.  As I have said before, while our opinions can differ, all of us want the best for Kent and I hope we can continue to harness this shared determination in the weeks and months ahead.

I hope to see as many as possible at Thursday’s webchat, and in the meantime do read through our Industrial Action Staff Webpages for more information on the background to the current dispute. If you are a UCU member and intend to participate in the strike action and/or the ASOS, please read the University industrial action pay policy and FAQs beforehand.

Recording of webchat 

If you missed Thursday’s webchat on Industrial Action you can listen to the session’s recording. 

Best wishes,

Martin Atkinson | Director of HR and Organisational Development

APOLOGIES BUT THIS YEAR’S QUIZ HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS

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Enjoy the most wonderful time of the year with the Kent Staff Christmas Quiz. It’s the perfect way to get together and test your trivia against friends and colleagues.

Led by Christmas enthusiast and veteran quizmaster Tim Burrows, the Kent Staff Christmas Quiz will take place in Darwin Conference Suite on Tuesday 21 December 2021, 10.00 till 14.30.

The free event will include a fun general knowledge quiz, festive nibbles, and lots of entertainment along the way. Soft and alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase from the bar and via the Order Up! app.

Quiz teams must be made up of 6 players and have a suitably festive team name. The winning quiz team will receive Christmas hampers full of seasonal goodies and treats.

How to enter:

To enter a team of 6, the team leader must complete the Annual Kent Staff Christmas Quiz 2021 form with the following:

• Your contact details
• Your festive quiz team name
• Your department or division

There is no dress code for this event but gaudy Christmas jumpers and fab-yule-ous costumes are highly encouraged. There is a bonus prize to be won for the best dressed quiz team. So, get your quiz team ready and your thinking caps on! For further information and enquiries, please email estatesdirectorateoffice@kent.ac.uk

We have three nominations for a new representative for non-union staff grades 1 to 6, in place of Becky Verlin, on our Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee (JSNCC).

The nominees are:

Jason Shinn – Assistant Housekeeping Manager – Election Statement

Zoe Wood – Finance Officer – Business School – Election Statement

Julien Danan – Finance Officer – Brussels – Election Statement

Staff working within grades 1 to 6 are eligible to vote in the election – if you’re eligible, you will have been sent an email with a link to the ballot form.

The ballot will close at 17.00 on Monday 6 December 2021.

The JSNCC is the main forum for consultation between the University and its staff on matters of mutual interest and is one of our most important and influential committees.

Staff membership comprises representatives of each of the trade unions and four representatives of non-union staff: two from the Academic, Research and Professional Services Staff and two from the Professional Services and Research Support Staff.

Further information about the JSNCC and the nomination and election processes can be found on the JSNCC website or by contacting Colin Smith in the employee relations team via c.smith-832@kent.ac.uk