From Martin Atkinson, Director of HR & Organisational Development 

Following the Government announcements on changes to Covid-19 restrictions earlier this week, there are a number of things for us to consider at Kent. While the national guidance has changed, our focus throughout the pandemic has been on keeping our entire community safe and, at this stage, that means making gradual changes so that we continue to limit the risk of infection while we return to our usual working practices.  

With that in mind, our intention is that we all treat February as a transition month where we can start to relax some of our existing measures at a pace that suits individuals in different areas while continuing to keep an eye on the situation locally.  

Returning to campus  

Any staff currently based at home are welcome to start coming back to work on campus from next week, with hybrid working arrangements back in place where relevant. Do discuss this with your line manager ahead of your return, and bear in mind when you do come back that we’ll need to keep safety at the front of our minds in busy areas in particular.   In-person meetings can also be booked where it makes sense – however, do consider what the appropriate format is for these, with a continued recommendation that we think ‘virtual-first’ given people will be working in different locations.  

Face Coverings  

We’ll also all need to recognise and respect the different situations both staff and students may be in and that some, particularly those who are more vulnerable, will be concerned about the changing picture nationally. With that in mind, our expectation is that everyone should continue to wear face coverings in teaching spaces, communal areas of our buildings and other areas where there are lots of people around. As before, in most cases those teaching classes won’t need to wear a face covering as they will have sufficient space at the front of the class.  

Face coverings can make a real difference to infection rates, along with reassuring those who are most at risk – we are also writing to students today to confirm that our current approach remains in place.  

Testing  

Everyone coming onto campus should also continue to test twice a week and register their results with the NHS – free lateral flow test kits are available on the Canterbury campus from College receptions, Campus Security, the Registry, Estates and the Templeman Library, plus at the Old Sports Hall at Medway.  

There is a lot to take in with a number of national changes happening in a short period of time – do talk this through with a manager if you have any concerns or via our Employee Assistance Scheme if you want to do this anonymously. Thank you also to all of you for your continued support with keeping each other safe throughout this period.  

Martin  

Martin Atkinson | Director of HR & Organisational Development

The Research Excellence Team are organising a weekly drop-in surgery offering help and support with anything related to public & community engagement and impact.

Are you an academic wanting to find out more about sharing your research with the wider community and identifying different pathways to impact? Are you a business leader looking to find an academic partnership? Do you need help with events management, audience or stakeholder identification, event evaluation, impact evidencing, funding and grants? Then do come along.

Our surgeries take place every Wednesday from 14.00 – 16.00 during term time except in weeks when there is a Kent Public Engagement Network (KPEN) meeting. Surgeries are open to anyone including staff, students and members of the public including community and business groups.

For more information contact Jill Hurst at j.hurst-853@kent.ac.uk.

Dave Thomas, a PhD candidate within our Centre for the Study of Higher Education, has been inducted into the American Association of Colleges and Universities Future Leaders Society.  

Dave, who is also an EDI adviser and an associate lecturer at Kent, was invited to join the Future Leaders Society after becoming a finalist for the prestigious K Patricia Cross Award. The award recognises graduate students who “show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in the areas of equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning.”

Each year, the award attracts hundreds of nominations from across disciplines. Dave is the only student from a university outside of the USA to be selected this year. Since he began his part-time doctoral studies in Higher Education in 2017, Dave has amassed an exceptional record of achievements including:

• engagement of student and staff communities at Kent through the Decolonise UKC initiative and the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network
• local community engagement that strengthened connections between African and Caribbean heritage residents in the Medway region and the University of Kent
• research on race equality and enhancing teaching and learning in higher education, particularly for minoritised students
• and service across the UK higher education sector on race equality. 

During Dave’s doctorate, he contributed as a student success professional at Kent before recently taking up appointments as a Senior Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Advance HE and Associate Lecturer in the Kent and Medway Medical School.

Professor Richard Reece, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, says: ‘It is excellent news that Dave’s substantial accomplishments have been recognised.  He will be able to exchange expertise with American colleagues on this very important aspect of higher education as he continues to grow as a leader in HE here in the UK.’

Colleagues involved in teaching or supporting student learning are invited to submit proposals for workshops, discussion papers, mini-presentations, or posters for the 2022 Learning and Teaching Conference. Contributions should address the theme, “Rethinking assessment and feedback designs for learning enhancement”, and be received by 28 February 2022. The full call, including the proposal submission form, is available via this blog.

How we design assessments and opportunities for students to gather and act on feedback are critically important aspects of teaching practice.  Assessment design is a key point of leverage for enhancing education because many students strategically focus on it, and it is obligatory. Feedback can be one of the most powerful ways of enhancing students’ learning if students are prepared to seek out and use all available sources of feedback to improve their subsequent work. We invite contributions that address assessment and feedback in various ways or contexts, for example:

• Diversifying assessments as part of diversifying the curriculum for cultural and racial inclusivity
• Gamification
• Digital tools for automating or innovating processes
• Using questions and unmarked tasks strategically and systematically to enhance seminars, labs or lectures
• Authentic assessments
• Wider audiences for student work, such as presentations or performances for the community or business stakeholders
• Promoting self-feedback or peer feedback
• Noticing, interpreting, and making changes based on feedback from technologies of the discipline (e.g. lab equipment readings, results of computer code, sense-making of statistical data and outputs)
• Innovative use of materials, spaces, or technologies
• Co-curricular, partnership, work-based, or employability activities

The conference will be held on Monday, 20 June 2022 in Darwin Conference Suite. Sign up to attend. Questions can be emailed to heprogsadmin@kent.ac.uk.      

Professor Paul Allain and Dr Alison Charles with Divisional and central colleagues will be holding the webinar, ‘Responding to the challenge of the Researcher Development Concordat at Kent, on 15 February 2022, 14.00-15.00.

As a signatory of the Researcher Development Concordat since June 2020, the University supports its principles as part of our commitment to create the very best culture for our researchers.

Join us to learn about the wide-ranging work which is being undertaken to realise these aims. Contribute to the debate about how best to implement the Concordat principles across Kent.

The session will consist of a short overview of the context, progress to date and our current plans, followed by a discussion and Q&A about how we might implement the Concordat principles, including 10 days’ professional development pro rata per year for staff who research.

All academic and research staff and professional services staff who support them are very welcome.

There is no need to book – access the Microsoft Teams link via SharePoint (Kent staff login required.)

This webinar will be recorded and available to watch on demand with a Kent staff login.

Are you a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA), Research Assistant (RA) or Research Associate interested in developing your project and people management skills? Did you know you can apply to run your own independent project and win funding worth up to £2500 to work with an undergraduate intern for 4-7 weeks on your research?

The Summer Vacation Research Competition will run for the fifth time in 2022 with funding available for 9 different summer vacation research projects, each of which could be associated with a particular Division and/or Signature Research Theme.

The competition models grant writing and application processes, allowing you to design an independent research project, gain a mentor, receive training and be involved with shortlisting, interviewing and managing a RA, project and budget.

Feedback from postdoc participants is extremely positive with one commenting: “This experience has been invaluable and has made a massive contribution to my development as an early career researcher. I feel more confident in writing funding applications, recruitment, supervision, and leading research independently.” Learn more about the competition and hear from other winners by viewing the recording of our recent ‘Valuing, supporting and developing our postdocs’ event – please access the link via SharePoint (Kent staff login required) and scroll down – the SVRC element begins at 00:25.

Reflecting on the benefits of participation, Dr Jennifer Leigh, the event’s co-founder with Dr Helen Leech, said: “The positive impact on successful applicants is self-evident and can include increased productivity and outputs, non-research skills acquisition and kick-started career planning.

One PDRA told us “I got more work done on this project in 6 weeks than I would have done in a year of working in my own time” and many others have credited the competition with the opportunity, practice and support to make successful applications for funding and fellowships, and to apply for permanent roles.”

Details of how to apply, including the application form, are available via SharePoint (Kent staff login required). The closing date for applications is 11 February 2022. An informal virtual Q&A session about the competition will take place on 3 February, 2022 from 13.00-14.00 (further details in this blogpost) or please email svrc@kent.ac.uk with any queries in the meantime.

Good luck with your application!

The Talent and Organisational Development (T&OD) team are happy to share the following upcoming training opportunities, all of which are bookable via Staff Connect:

Note Taking Sessions available:

• Thursday 27 January, 9.30 – 12.30
• Thursday 27 January, 13.30 – 15.30

Mental Health Training – there’s a number of mental health training sessions available:

•  Intro to Mental Health and Wellbeing on the 19 January
• Mental Health Awareness on the 9 February
• Managing Mental Health on the 10 February

  Crucial Conversations Refresher:

• Wednesday 2 February, 14.30 – 16.30

For further information, please visit Staff Connect, or contact the Team: ldev@kebt.ac.uk

To ensure that all staff are aware of the opportunities available to them the T&OD team have launched their SharePoint to all staff which is populated with useful information, templates and course outlines.  

Obituary written by Professor Alan Chadwick

The University was very sorry to hear of the death of Dick Jones, Emeritus Professor of Polymer Science, who was an active member of the University’s academic community for 50 years and an internationally respected chemist.

Richard Glyn Jones was born on 27 September 1939 in England and whilst he was still a young boy his family emigrated to New Zealand. He graduated with a MSc in Chemistry from the University of Wellington in 1962 and returned to England to study for a PhD at the University of Leeds. His supervisor was Fred Dainton, later Lord Dainton, who led a world-leading research group in radiation and polymer science.

He obtained his PhD in 1966 with a thesis entitled “The ferric chloride photosensitised polymerisation of acrylonitrile in dimethylformamide”, after which he was appointed Lecturer in Applied Chemistry at Lanchester Polytechnic, latterly Coventry University. In 1970 he was appointed a Lecturer in Chemistry at Kent and given special responsibility to develop a new course, Applied Chemistry with Control engineering (ACCE), in liaison with the School of Electronics.

Dick’s research into mechanisms of polymerisation has ranged from fundamental studies of charge-transfer interactions of monomers and radical initiators through to the mechanisms underlying the functioning of photo- and electron beam resists. This interest led to 10-year collaboration with the Japanese Government Agency, NEDO, during the 1990s for research into the mechanisms of the synthesis of polysilanes and their derivatives and a world leading reputation for Kent in resists.

His research activities involved the award of numerous grants with a total value well in excess of £1 million, the publication of over 120 papers, numerous invited lectures, and he supervised the research of some 30 chemists, mostly to higher degrees. Within the University Dick very successfully took on many positions. For many years, he was the deputy master of Keynes College. In 1997, the Schools of Chemistry and Physics merged to form the School of Physical Sciences under Professor Bob Newport as Head of School. Dick took on this role for four years from 2000 and continued the work of amalgamating the two cultures and maintaining the courses. He founded the Functional Materials Research Group, which encouraged collaboration between chemists and physicists.

It was Dick’s initiative to introduce the Forensic Science course that is now very popular with applicants and is consistently in the top 10 of league tables. He continued to support the course by funding the Richard Jones Prizes for the best undergraduate prizes. Dick was a very energetic member of the national and international chemistry community. Nationally he was a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industries committees for polymers and materials, and was a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. Internationally he had collaborative projects with groups in Europe, North America and Japan.

For over 20 years, he was member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the body responsible for nomenclature and definitions.  In this role, he chaired the Polymer Division, led several projects and was lead author of the paper that defined the naming of macromolecular materials. The high level of respect he gained in IUPAC resulted in a special issue of the journal Polymer International on his retirement. Dick achieved two ambitions that were close to his heart.

Firstly, he aimed to create the conditions that his students could work well. Secondly, he wanted everyone to share his love for the music of Chopin. His records at Kent and with U3A are testament to his efforts. He leaves a gap in the life of SPS and will be fondly remembered by all who knew him. We express our condolences to his dedicated partner David and to his family.

The Graduate and Researcher College (GRC) and Talent and Organisational Development (T&OD) are delighted to announce the launch of the new Central Researcher Induction module.

Designed for all staff who research, especially those who are new to the University, but also colleagues already working here, the module contextualises Kent’s research and innovation activities, signposts available support and resources, and encourages you to plan your career and engage with our researcher community.

It takes approximately 30 minutes to complete the module and you can return to it for reference at any time. There is also an accompanying ‘Useful links’ document available on SharePoint (Kent staff login required), which contains links to information sources of use and relevance to you as a member of our academic and research staff.

Professor Paul Allain, Dean of the Graduate and Researcher College, said: “The Central Researcher Induction module is one of a series of resources being developed to support staff who research at Kent, as outlined in the University’s Concordat and HRER Award Action Plans. I urge all my academic and research colleagues to complete this excellent short course, which should enhance your appreciation of the research environment at Kent, including the support and resources available to you as a researcher. It is half an hour well spent.”

The module is one of a suite of new eLearning modules available to Kent staff via Staff training Moodle, the learning platform that houses all of the University’s internal eLearning. Information about available modules can be found in this Digital Communication Guide.

The content will be updated going forward so please on completion give us your honest feedback so that it can be improved for subsequent participants. For any queries regarding this module or researcher development at Kent, please email acresdev@kent.ac.uk.

Would you, or anyone you know, be interested in taking part in this study, which is being run through Canterbury and surrounding areas?

The IsoFIT-BP study is investigating whether static, or ‘isometric’ exercise, such as a wall squat (held in a fixed position) reduces blood pressure.  It is led by a group of researchers from the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and East Kent Hospitals.

Dr Jim Wiles, Principal Lecturer from the School of Psychology and Life Sciences at Canterbury Christ Church University, said: ‘So far our research has shown that as little as 24 minutes of isometric exercise per week can successfully reduce most people’s blood pressure by a clinically significant amount. This in turn dramatically reduces the risk of associated diseases such as cardiovascular disease.’

Doctors already advise patients with high blood pressure to make lifestyle changes like stopping smoking and drinking less alcohol. People are also recommended to lose weight, change their diet, and exercise every day, along with taking medication. However, more than half of patients find their blood pressure remains high because they find it hard to stick to these changes and don’t take their medication.  The study is investigating whether prescribing a quick and simple wall squat isometric exercise is easier to stick to and benefits patients.

Consultant Nephrologist (Kidney Specialist) and Hypertension Specialist Dr Tim Doulton, from East Kent Hospitals, said people could potentially see improvements after only a few minutes exercise, three days a week.

If you are interested in finding out more, please see the image below

You can also email isofit-bp@canterbury.ac.uk with any queries. If you take part in the study, you might be required to travel into Canterbury on one occasion. You can register your interest in taking part by following this link to our registration survey.