All professional colleagues working at Faculty or School level in Canterbury and Medway (around 290 staff) were invited to a one-day development conference on Thursday 12 January,  at the Canterbury campus on the theme of dealing with change.

This is part of the “Excellence Initiative” started in 2012 to encourage the sharing of good practice across the different Schools and Faculties, and to celebrate and enhance the service delivered by professional staff to students and academics as well as to other professional colleagues working centrally.

The current “Excellence and Change” enhancement theme succeeds the “Service Excellence” and “Excellence through Partnerships” themes, which gave birth to a number of projects, such as the very successful Shadow Matching and Coffee with Colleagues schemes in 2016.

The day began with two keynote addresses from Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education, and Dr Christopher Sarchet, consultant for SUMS and Convenor of the AUA’s Managing Change in Higher Education Network. Both discussed the various internal and external changes which have been – and will be – impacting the University, as well as the whole sector, and how professional service staff can embrace these changes.

During the afternoon, each participant was able to attend two break-out workshop sessions from a choice of nine, which included topics such as the politics of change; dealing with change; career pathways; the student perspective; or mindfulness.  These were led by Kent staff as well as visiting speakers from Kent Union, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Northampton.

We were delighted to be joined throughout the day by members of central departments and central projects who manned stands which either showcased new developments in their areas, or highlighted the various opportunities and support offered by the University to staff who are seeking or facing a change in their professional life. These included the Student Success Project; Staff Connect; Wellbeing; the Requirements Team; Self-Guided Audio Tour; further qualifications offered by the Centre for Professional Practice; and the University’s Master Plan, to name but a few.

We were also fortunate to have one of our colleagues, Louise Frith, and one of our students, Sophie Thurlow, documenting the conference through graphic recording. These images, as well as the presentations are available on the Excellence Initiative website, where further information on current projects and past and future events can also be found.

The Excellence events team would like to thank everyone who gave the keynote addresses, delivered sessions, exhibited and contributed to the success of the conference, as well as all of the colleagues who attended.