Winner of the Supportive Colleague award is Paul Sales, IT Trainer, Student Operations. 

Paul was nominated for his key role in training and support for the rollout of KentVision, our new student management system. 

On receiving his award, he said: ‘I feel overwhelmed and massively thankful to everyone who nominated me. Working with me is a fantastic team trying to make KentVision work for everyone. I wouldn’t want their work to go unnoticed – they have been incredible, relentless and just doing their best for staff and students.’ 

Paul’s nomination  

Paul’s nomination notes how he ‘has been a huge support and a primary contact for many colleagues with all manner of KentVision queries. His KentVision expertise and university business process knowledge has been invaluable for collating feedback and working with users and the KentVision team together to find ways forward.  

‘He was directly involved with enabling divisional and central PSD colleagues, right from the start, to complete essential and urgent student records management work, including student assessment processing, examination timetable preparation, exam boards, student enrolment and registration, module registration to name but a few. He has seemingly endless patience, is incredibly knowledgeable, always ready to help, offer advice or just his ear for a rant.’ 

Winners of our Community impact award are the PPE Response Team for their design and manufacture of CE marked PPE free of charge to care homes, hospices and hospitals in Kent.  

Team members include: Kevin Smith, Technical Manager; Colin Cresser, Technical Specialist; Julien Soosaipillai, Technical Specialist (all Division of Arts & Humanities). Daniel Knox, IT & Technical Services Manager; Sarah Carey; Ryan Morrow, Technical Manager; Jon Foley, Technician; Antonio Mendoza, Technician; Keith Greenhow, Technical Specialist (Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences ); Andrew Brookman, Technical Manager (Electronics); Mark Wheadon (Computing Fellow); Marcus Wright, Head of Business Development; Paul Sinnock, Deputy Director; Lucy Druesne, GOETEC Partnership Manager (IS). Carole Barron, Director of KEI; and Lauren Keating, Business & Industry Relationship Officer (KEI).  

On receiving the award, Carole Barron said: ‘When someone tells you that the team has actually saved lives, it’s very humbling and reflects all the hard work of the team giving support at such a critical time.’ And Marcus Wright added: ‘It’s the first time that technicians have come together in such a way’ and sets a precedent for future collaboration across different team areas. 

Award nomination  

The award nomination recognises the team’s tireless work to produce PPE during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic. The team of technicians across academic divisions and colleagues in Knowledge Exchange & Innovation produced almost 5,000 face visors, specialist ophthalmic breath screens and over 20,000 face mask ear protectors to stringent safety standards. Often working evenings and weekends, the team were able to design a prototype, source materials and create the University’s first cross-departmental manufacturing centre in just two weeks.  

As a result, donations came in from alumni and local business, including a single donation of £20,000 from Santander. There was also positive feedback from recipients of the PPE in the community. Sarah Martins, Senior Ward Sister at Pilgrims Hospice, Canterbury said: ‘Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen, it makes a huge difference to the patients and staff here at the Hospice and enables us to continue caring without compromising safety.’ Another recipient of face visors, Redkite, added: ‘Thank you is not enough, this will make sure we can continue our work as safely as possible.’ 

The award nomination notes: ‘This project was the first time that technicians from across multiple departments within the University had independently come together, utilised facilities and resources in a collaborative approach. The University’s Technical Services strategy is now designed to include projects to enhance collaborative technician working, to make technical skills, resources and facilities more available to the wider University and to further highlight the positive impact technical staff have on the University’s activities.  

‘The work of the KEI team alongside technicians was essential in facilitating connections with care homes, hospices and the NHS as well as enabling the fundraising activities, making this a truly collaborative project supporting our local communities.’ 

 Further recognition  

On the same day as our Staff Awards, the Covid-19 PPE Response Team found out that they had won the prestigious Papin Prize, the UK’s only awards dedicated to celebrating technical excellence and innovation in higher education and research. You can find out more on our News Centre story. 

Main picture shows: Lauren Keating, Carole Barron, Paul Sinnock and Marcus Wright at the Kent Staff Recognition Awards ceremony. 

An eclectic range of academic and industry experts have been confirmed for the University of Kent’s 7th annual HR Conference: Keeping Up with the Change.

The virtual conference will run from 9.30 to 14.00 on Wednesday 24 November and is organised by Knowledge Exchange and Innovation, the business and innovation gateway to the University of Kent. To book tickets, please visit this webpage.

The University’s world-leading academics and guest speakers will share their latest research, examples of best practice and tips and tools which can be applied in the workplace. In line with the theme ‘Keeping Up with the Change’, speakers will be cover topics including flexible working, leadership, cybersecurity and stress management. Delegates can expect to gain advice on adapting to cultural change at work and how to cultivate new, future proof ways of working.

Speakers from the University include:

• Dr Dawn H Nicholson, Senior Lecturer in Business/Organisational Psychology, partnering with Jenny Varley, Founder of Flink, to argue the case for job sharing.
• Dr Jason Nurse, Senior Lecturer in Cybersecurity, focussing on the unique cyber security challenges posed by working from home.
• Coral Warner, counsellor, mental health mentor, supervisor and trainer who will help delegates to identify and offer support to staff members who are suffering with stress.

Industry experts include:

• Antonio Fletcher, Employment Lawyer at Brachers who will provide expert advice on how not to break the law when working from home.
• Chris Preston, Founder and Director of The Culture Builders sharing his tips for managing change in a new world of work.
• Sonya Sikora and Alice Capell talking about their experience of embracing the ‘anytime, anywhere’ philosophy whilst working at Holiday Extras.
• Kelly Wakeman, Founder and Director of Start Inspiring sharing her tips on how to become RADICAL leaders in a post-covid world.

Staff tickets for the University Carol Service are now available.

The service will be taking place in Canterbury Cathedral on Monday 6 December at 20.00.

Please email your request for up to 4 tickets (which are free of charge) to Revd Dr Stephen Laird s.c.e.laird@kent.ac.uk and don’t forget to provide your location/address so that they know where to send the tickets.

This year’s appeal, for homelessness charity Porchlight, is online only via the Justgiving platform.

Covid Safety

This year, some aspects of the Carol Service have been modified in order to maximise safety: there will be no physical collection for the appeal, so please donate online, individual candles will not be involved, processing by singers etc will be minimised and the event will be shorter.

For further details of the event please visit the Carol Service webpage.

If you are an Academic Adviser or Senior Tutor, you will now have access to the new Progress Profiles. A Progress Profile is a web-based report which tracks a student’s academic progress. It displays information such as module marks, attendance and enrolment data and is updated daily.

Why are they important?

Students told us that sometimes it is hard to know how well their studies are going. We created Progress Profiles to give our students a clear understanding of their performance across every stage of their degree journey. Every undergraduate will have their own Progress Profile. Academic Advisers can see the reports of all their advisees and Senior Tutors can see all the reports for students in their school.

Staff who can access Progress Profiles will also be able to view cohort data alongside a student’s individual data. Students are already having regular conversations about their studies with their Academic Adviser and Progress Profiles can help focus these conversations as it displays key data from KentVision in a format that is quicker and easier to digest.

Progress Profiles can be accessed directly from the top banner of the Student Guide.

Need Help?

A short video providing a detailed explanation of how Progress Profiles work can be found in the ‘About’ tab on the report page.

For any queries relating to access to, or content of, Progress Profiles, please contact the Information Services Helpdesk: helpdesk@kent.ac.uk

For further information or to provide feedback on Progress Profiles please contact the Student Success Team studentsuccessproject@kent.ac.uk.

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift or reward for your staff ? Let them choose exactly what they’d like, and support the city’s businesses at the same time, with the Canterbury Gift Card!

What is the Canterbury Gift Card ?

Launched in 2020, it’s a Mastercard that can be pre-loaded with however much you wish to gift the recipient.

Where can recipients spend their gift card?

The cards can be spent at around 120 local businesses, big and small. There’s something for everyone on the list, from big multiples such as Boots, M&S, Fenwick, Primark, Cote, McDonalds and New Look, to unique local independent stores. It covers everything from The Cheese Shop to high end jewellers, from The Marlowe Theatre to the local butcher, all the way to hairdressers, nail salons and beauty services, toyshops, clothing, shoes, restaurants, pubs and cafes. You can see the whole list of participating businesses on the Canterbury gift card page.

How do I find out more?

If you would like more information on how to give the gift of Canterbury to your staff or customers, please get in touch – we would love to help. It’s quick and easy, it supports local business and we guarantee it’ll never get regifted!

Email Kathy.Moulton@Canterburybid.co.uk

For orders of total value £2,000 or more, please contact Miconex who can arrange this for you.

Staff from the Department of Audio and Music Technology release new compositions on German Record Label, Gruenrekorder.

Dr. Aki Pasoulas and Dr. Brona Martin were commissioned by the Soundlapse project to create soundscape works using recordings from the project as source materials.  The recordings are from three wetland areas around the city of Valdivia, Chile. The album Soundlapse features works from various artists which explore these field recordings. The purpose of the project is to highlight the acoustical heritage of wetlands in the south of Chile. You can listen and download the album here.

‘ Financial wellbeing with care first Lifestyle’Our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support, including weekly webinars.

This week’s (Monday 8 November –  Friday 12 November) webinars are as follows:

Monday 8 November 2021 – ‘How Care first can support you’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Tuesday 9 November 2021 – ‘Financial wellbeing with care first Lifestyle’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 10 November webinar – CANCELLED

Thursday 11 November 2021 – ‘Winter heart health’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 12 November 2021 – ‘The benefits of giving back and supporting other’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link