Colleagues – I hope the new academic year has started well for you all. There is so much going on across the University I thought it might be helpful to communicate directly and more regularly going forward, sharing especially external updates but also importantly, what we are discussing at Executive Group.

Higher Education in the external landscape

Externally, we now have Kit Malthouse as the new Secretary of State for Education and Andrea Jenkyns has been appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Skills, Further and Higher Education). We’ll have to see what this means in practice but it’s probably fair to say that Higher Education is not high on the agenda, so we are going to have to work hard as universities to ensure government is aware of the work we do and the importance of universities to their regions, economically and socially.

Cost of living support for staff and students

The economic issues mean that there are impacts across the board on the cost of living. This is impacting our students, our staff and the University as a whole. Colleagues across Kent Union and the University have been working through these issues, and have pulled together information on support for students and staff to help with addressing what we can to help our community. We are also looking at what we can do to address our energy costs and to reduce the impact of very rapidly increasing costs in this area.

We have been discussing these issues at EG over the last couple of weeks and will continue to keep them on the agenda. Other items we have covered include KentVision performance issues, which I’m very aware continue to have a real impact on colleagues. The internal IS team is working directly with the supplier to address this, while we have also commissioned an external review of the system set up to make sure that we address these issues before we add in further functionality.

Actions from the NSS results and TEF performance

EG have reviewed the NSS results and the action plans that the University and divisions have developed to address the areas where we need to improve. Thank you to everyone involved in this work, improving our student experience is a key focus for us this academic year. Linked to NSS, the Office for Students on Friday 30 September published a large amount of data, relevant for a range of regulatory purposes, including the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). We are looking carefully at all this now and what it will mean for our performance at Kent in the TEF.

Ensuring the sustainability of Arts and Humanities

We also discussed Arts and Humanities at Kent. As you may know, there has been a national decline in the popularity of many Arts and Humanities subjects for students – and Kent has been very ‘squeezed’ by competition from the Russell Group as they have expanded numbers in these areas, our numbers almost halving since ‘16/17. This is especially disappointing given how well so many of our Arts and Humanities disciplines have done in the REF. We agreed that we need to improve the financial sustainability, and that doing nothing is not an option. The next steps are to engage colleagues in feasibility work to develop a streamlined divisional structure. This work will focus on the division considering viability of courses, having fewer organisational units (Schools/Departments), and a reduced cost base.

Once the feasibility work has been undertaken, this will be reconsidered by EG. This is expected for late November. Colleagues in the Division will have the opportunity to be engaged with all of this work to shape what we do next to ensure the sustainability of Arts and Humanities at Kent. I appreciate that this is further change, and we will do all we can to support colleagues through this period.

Thank you for your continued support and involvement

Finally, thank you for your involvement in the staff conference and staff barbeques at Medway and Canterbury, and during registration and the beginning of term, providing students such a warm welcome. Thank you also to those involved in supporting the Youth Summit, welcoming almost 700 young people from local schools and colleges to focus on their voice, engaging with learning opportunities and articulating what they want to see in the future to make a better world.

We are living in turbulent times, with a new sovereign, new Prime Minister and new economic paradigm. Alongside this the recent escalation of the war in Ukraine, particularly around Kherson, and the emerging situation in Iran, where protests are being heavily restricted, has prompted enormous concern. This is especially worrying for staff and students with loved ones in each area so do seek support from your manager if this is affecting you. This also reminds us of the importance of supporting each other in our community, taking the opportunities we can to come together following the difficult Covid period.

I look forward to working with you in the months ahead, and I hope to see many of you at upcoming events or around campus.

With my best wishes

Karen