On 25 June 2025, the Graduate and Researcher College (GRC) welcomed staff and students to our Annual Postgraduate Conference.

It was a busy and vibrant day celebrating all of our postgraduate researchers, thank you to all who attended. If you have any feedback from the event, please fill out our feedback form.

This year, the GRC collaborated with Academic Schools to celebrate our postgraduate researcher community.

The day kicked off with research talks where we heard from postgraduate researchers across academic schools. We were then also joined by Kent Students’ Union, Open Research Team, Careers and Employability Services, and Student Support and Wellbeing, who were at stand over the lunch period to answer any queries and showcase their support/offering. During the breaks and the lunch period, we also viewed the brilliant variety of research posters, created by our research community. The afternoon was then packed with engaging school-led sessions.

Professor Ben Hutchinson, Director of the GRC, reflected:

“The 2025 GRC Conference was a wonderful way to conclude the academic year, bringing together PGRs from across the university and beyond to celebrate postgraduate research. What struck me was not only how good all the talks and posters were – it was very difficult to choose a winner! – but also just how diverse our postgraduate community is, in terms of both disciplines and locations. It was a pleasure to see students from both Canterbury and Medway, as well as from partner institutions such as Northeastern University and Canterbury Christ Church. Many thanks to everyone who attended, participated, and supported.”

PhD researcher, Yeshu Kadiri, presenting her research talk

Awards Ceremony 

We ended with an awards ceremony and drinks reception, which celebrated the winners of the Research Poster Competition, Research Talks Competition and the GRC Prizes. We were delighted to announce the winners of all our competitions this year at the event. These were:

Research Poster Competition

• Judge’s choice: Chloe Bates, School of Psychology
• People’s choice: Sandali Malandkar, Medway School of Pharmacy

Research Talks Competition

• Research Talk winner:  Connor McClenan, School of Arts and Architecture

GRC Prizes

• Research Supervisor Winner: Professor Theresa Gannon
• Research Supervisor Runner Up: Dr George Dobre
• Postgraduate Researcher Winner: Katy Bruce
• Postgraduate Researcher Winner: Eduardo Villavicencio Pinto

“I would like to really thank you for the great event yesterday across all aspects, organisation, atmosphere, engagement etc. that matched our students’ enthusiasm. I felt they didn’t want to leave yesterday.” Dr Fani Papagiannouli

We were delighted to see so many of you at the Annual Postgraduate Conference – thank you for joining us and making it such a wonderful day! See more photos from the day.

** Update 4 July 2025: We are pleased to announce Café Nero has reopened today on our Canterbury campus after finalising the new lease arrangements.**

Following the recent closure of Blackwell’s Bookstore on our Canterbury campus, we want to update you on the temporary impact this will have on the adjoining Café Nero outlet.

As previously shared, Café Nero operated under a commercial arrangement with Blackwell’s and was not managed by the University. Now Blackwell’s lease has ended, Café Nero will be temporarily closed from Tuesday 1 July.

We are currently working with Café Nero to finalise new lease arrangements so they can continue operating on our campus. These are expected to be completed shortly and once in place, Café Nero will reopen. We will confirm the reopening date as soon as possible.