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

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year and what better time to get into the festive spirit and do something charitable?

Thousands of people live with Parkinson’s disease in the UK but for many the right treatment is out of reach. We’re determined to change that.  In partnership with the charity Parkinson’s Care and Support UK, we are currently looking to raise £600,000 to establish the world’s first integrated therapy centre offering comprehensive support to those that need it most, while developing new treatments that could give extra hope to so many worldwide.

In order to help reach this target, charity season’s greetings cards are now available to support our fundraising campaign.  Carbasse Implant and Dental Centre, a family run dental practice based in Whitstable, has kindly sponsored the cards and we are most grateful to them for their support.

Practice Manager, Sarah Carbasse, said “I have personal experience of the impact a brain injury can have on an individual and their family. As soon as I heard about this groundbreaking project I knew I wanted to get involved to potentially help change the lives of those living with neuro-disabilities.“

The cards, which feature a snowy view of Canterbury Cathedral from campus and a snowy sheep, are available for a suggested donation of £3.50 for a pack of 10 or three packs for £9 from the Darwin College, Eliot College, Keynes College, Turing College, Tyler Court and Parkwood Receptions or by contacting Anna Pollard – A.J.Pollard@kent.ac.uk or Laura Smith – L.J.Smith-73@kent.ac.uk. All proceeds will go towards supporting this vital project.

Please help us to open this new Centre and change the lives of so many.

Dr Mahmood Shafiee, Reader in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering, has been ranked amongst top 2% of the most influential researchers in the world in a study by Elsevier and Stanford University.

The Elsevier created a publicly available database of over 100,000 top-scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator. The list has placed Dr Shafiee first in the Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and third at the University of Kent.

Dr Shafiee has gained a national and international reputation for his excellent research in different areas of Mechanical Engineering. As of November 2021, he has authored 1 book and 10 book chapters, co-invented 3 patents, and published over 200 articles in the most prestigious journals. He has also a very strong track record of research funding from different National and European bodies, and has been plenary speaker and program committee member of over 100 International Conferences.

Dr Shafiee said “I’m proud of being ranked among Top 2% researchers in the world. It will certainty attract research community’s attention to the research we are doing in Mechanical Engineering Research Group at the University of Kent”.

Further information and the full data set can be found on the publisher’s website.

Thank you to the Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences for this article. 

The KSL Music Collective, a group of musicians including alumni of the University of Kent (Medway) have come together again this year, to bring Christmas cheer to audiences far and wide through a Virtual Christmas Concert – The Spirit of Christmas 2021.

The concert will be streamed via YouTube on 19 December 2021 at 17.30 and will cover a variety of Christmas music performed virtually by singers and instrumentalists. The aim of this event is to share a programme of seasonal music whilst fundraising for a good cause. The group came together last year during lockdown when they put on a successful virtual concert to raise funds for the Medway Street Angels charity for the homeless and a second Spring concert supported the Young Minds charity.

This year they are fundraising for TTVS – a charity that improves lives through supporting young carers, older people living with dementia and people seeking employment, and St Anne’s Bagshot who have supported their music performances and local communities. The concert is organised by Arun Silva, an organist and singer and alumnus of the University of Kent at Medway. The group includes musicians who have studied at the Historic Dockyards campus.

The concert is free to watch on YouTube. Donations can be made via the JustGiving page. To access the programme and receive a link to view the concert, viewers should register free via the Eventbrite page or the Facebook event page. Two lucky donors, selected via a prize draw, will each win a box of brownies from The Beeston Brownie Company. TTVS delivers a diverse range of projects that together seek to improve lives and build healthier and more resilient communities, including young carers, older people living with dementia and those struggling to find employment.  

The charity provides support over a large rural area of over 380 square miles, with limited public transport, access to jobs or further education.   In 2019, Torridge was ranked 67 out of 326 on the Government deprivation indices, with reduced access to housing and services, lower income and poorer physical and mental health.  

St Anne’s Bagshot has supported music over the years by hosting concerts, other events and continues to be a welcoming hub for the local community. Some of the concert performances will be filmed at St Anne’s. More about TTVS projects can be found on their website. This event is produced and promoted by Silva Media.

Active Bystander Training – places are available on 25 November 10.00 -12.00 bookable on Staff Connect. At the University, we are fully committed to support our colleagues when confronting challenging behaviour.

Active Bystander training is a blend of eLearning and a virtual session. This will help ensure that staff can play their part in preventing any inappropriate behaviour.

Georgina Randsley de Moura, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Strategy, Planning and Performance, comments: ‘As part of our commitment to our staff and student community, I am pleased to support the Active Bystander initiative. We value our community, and therefore it is our responsibility to create and nurture an environment, which is safe, supportive, and free from all forms of bullying and harassment. This initiative is an important step forward.’

Active Bystander training is now available for all staff. It comprises an eLearning module, available to self enrol on Staff Training Moodle, followed by a virtual training session on Teams. The upcoming date for the Active Bystander virtual session is 25 November 10.00-12.00, which is bookable on Staff Connect.

The eLearning and session aims to:

• Understand the definition of bystander
• Define the problem and why we need Active Bystanders
• Understand why some bystanders act and some do not
• Look at the skills of a bystander
• Understand what to say and when to say it
• Understand the impact of active bystanders

The Turing Scheme offers funding for Kent students to study and work abroad.

The UK government has confirmed allocation of budget to support the Turing Scheme for the next three years in its Spending Review 2021. The Turing Scheme, the UK government’s programme to fund study and work opportunities across the world, was initially launched as a one-year programme for the academic year of 2021-22, and has been extended for a further three years, including £110 million for the academic year 2022-23.

More information on funding for the 2022-23 academic year will be published in due course, with the latest updates via the Turing Scheme website.

International Partnerships successfully bid for and is managing the University’s 2021-22 Turing project.

In 2021-22 we are supporting Kent students on a term or year abroad outside of Europe (those on placements in Europe continue to be supported by the Erasmus+ Programme for 2021-22 and 2022-23). We will also be supporting Kent students carrying out short, extra-curricular international placements via our new Go Abroad Bitesize initiative.

The Turing Scheme has and will continue to have a focus on widening participation and we are working with various stakeholders across the University to support this.

International Partnerships will be leading on the University’s annual Turing funding applications which will be submitted each spring for activities taking place in the following academic year.

We will be consulting with Divisions and Professional Services early 2022 to discuss ideas and activities for inclusion in the 2022-23 application.

Our Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee (JSNCC) held its latest regular meeting on Wednesday 10 November. The JSNCC is the main forum in which staff and trade union representatives meet with management representatives to discuss key developments across the University, particularly those that will impact staff. Find out more about JSNCC and how the reps can help you have your voice heard.

Updates from the November meeting

Q+A with the Vice-Chancellor

Our Vice-Chancellor Karen Cox joined the first section of the meeting to answer questions from the reps, including a number which were submitted in advance. This covered a range of areas, including her role in bringing together the different aspects of the University and coordinating our strategic delivery; how we work with Universities UK, who are a representative body that lobbies on behalf of universities; her upcoming role as a board member for the Universities and Colleges Employers Association; and how we can improve communication and feedback loops to Executive Group, including through further developing our staff webchat series and through new initiatives to support employer engagement that will come via our People and Culture Strategy.

Wellbeing and Workload

Following the recent recommendations from the Wellbeing Working Group, work has begun to scope out the focus groups needed to gather detailed information on issues regarding workload. At the meeting, it was agreed that ahead of this we should run an all-staff survey so we can identify particular areas of concern to then explore in depth. The aim is that this survey will be sent out before the end of term and will run through till early January, with the focus groups then expected in February once the results have been analysed, leading into action planning by the end of March 2022.

KentVision

A regular update on KentVision was provided, following on from the well-attended Staff Webchat earlier that week. Further clarity was provided on the Features and Functionality Business Analysis workstream for the project, which is there to sense-check and confirm prior work undertaken on the key things we need the new system to be able to do.

Job Grade Review

Our usual Job Grade Review process for professional service staff was suspended throughout Organising for Success. The Committee agreed that this should now relaunch, with the process for 2021/22 including a central committee that moderates evaluations carried out by local HR teams. Any regrades agreed will be backdated to 1 October 2021.

University Kindness Charter

As part of our Inclusive Allyship programme, a proposal was put forward to adopt a University Kindness Charter that sets out the positive behaviours we all want to adopt. Workstream members will be updating this following feedback from JSNCC ahead of circulation to Executive Group. Next meeting: Wednesday 8 December 2021 Find our more about JSNCC.

The E-Learning Team are pleased to announce that the next event in our series of ‘Digitally Enhanced Education webinars’ will take place on Wednesday 1 December from 10.00 – 12.30 (GMT), with the theme ‘Multimedia and accessibility: Making online work for everyone’.  Please find the agenda for the event below:

Agenda:

• 10.00 – 10.05 – Phil Anthony (University of Kent): Introduction
• 10.05 – 10.20 – Nigel Megitt (BBC): Making television accessible: Identifying priorities to support audio description and captioning (subtitling) at scale
• 10.20 – 10.35 – Jonathan Penny (ITV): Audio Description: how does it work?
• 10.35 – 10.50 – Marion McGillivray (ITV): TV subtitling: how does it work?
• 10.50 – 11.05 – Kasia Senyszyn (University of Kent): What can the public sector learn from the creative arts about delivering accessible events
• 11.05 – 11.15 – Break
• 11.15 – 11.30 – Antonio Viera Santos (Atos): Tips for posting accessible content in social media
• 11.30 – 11.45 – @SightlessKombat (Accessibility consultant): Accessibility in videogames. The art of the possible…
• 11.45 – 12.05 – Stephen Rose (Microsoft): What’s new in Teams
• 12:05 – 12:20 – Simon Houghton (WeSupportDeafAwareness): What’s it REALLY like to be deaf? What are the challenges, and how can they be overcome
• 12.20 – 12.30 – Phil Anthony (University of Kent): Wrap-up

If you would like to join the webinar series, please express your here if you haven’t already. We add you the Microsoft Team linked to the series.  Colleagues from outside the University of Kent are very welcome to join and so feel free to circulate. If you would like to present at a future event, please complete this form and Phil Anthony will be in touch.

There are plenty of things going on and around The Hub on Medway campus! For more information and help about any events, visit The Hub What’s On webpage or email thehubmedway@gre.ac.uk. Here are some highlights of what you can expect at Medway:

Extra-curricular ensembles at Medway – 10 November – 16 December

Open to all students and the local community, from Pop, Rock and Soul Choir to Percussion group you can get involved at the University campus at the Historic Dockyard. Find out more.

Pilates – Monday 15 November (and every Monday) – 17.30 – 18.30

Happening in the Mezzanine,  this class you will work your full body with a variety of low impact movements, Pilates is a great way to wind down and relax. FREE for all students and staff. Open to all abilities. Find out more.

Zumba – Tuesday 16 November (and every Tuesday) 17.15 – 18.16

Want a fun exciting way to exercise? Zumba is the one for you!!  Open to all students and staff – all abilities welcome. Please arrive at The Hub and go to the mezzanine for 17.15. Find out more. 

Social Football – Wednesday 17 November – 17.00 – 18.00

Come along to social football, for some fun friendly games, meet new friends and improve your skills! Open to all levels, whether you are a beginner or advanced. Find out more.