Come to the 7th Stephen Gray Lecture on the 9 March, where Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell will be the key speaker.

Many poets have written about astronomy and the night sky. Dame Jocelyn will select about half a dozen of these poems, give the scientific background and seek volunteer readers from the audience to read the poems. There will be a chance to look at the poems and discuss informally over tea an biscuits before the talk starts.

Register for the event

DATE AND TIME

9 March 2023, 15:30 for a 16.00 start.

LOCATION

University of Kent, Canterbury Campus (venue TBA)

About the Speaker

Jocelyn Bell Burnell inadvertently discovered pulsars as a graduate student in radio astronomy in Cambridge, opening up a new branch of astrophysics – work recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor.

She has subsequently worked in many roles in many branches of astronomy, working part-time while raising a family. She is now a Visiting Academic in Oxford, and the Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Scotland.  She has been President of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society, in 2008 became the first female President of the Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland, and in 2014 the first female President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was one of the small group of women scientists that set up the Athena SWAN scheme.

She has received many honours, including a $3M Breakthrough Prize in 2018.

The public appreciation and understanding of science have always been important to her, and she is much in demand as a speaker and broadcaster.  In her spare time, she gardens, listens to choral music and is active in the Quakers. She has co-edited an anthology of poetry with an astronomical theme – ‘Dark Matter; Poems of Space’.

Collecting data through surveys

When collecting personal data we are required to supply the person providing the data with certain pieces of information explaining why we are processing their data, how we will process it, if we will share it outside of the University, what their data protection legislation rights are, and who to contact with any questions or concerns.

One of the easiest ways to collect data is by using a survey tool. Whenever you set up a survey, you should only collect the data that you definitely need to meet your purpose. And you must include a Privacy Notice at the point of collection, normally this is achieved by including a link to the Notice in the survey itself.

We have produced some Privacy Notice Guidance, which includes a checklist to use to audit existing Privacy Notices, and a Privacy Notice template to use to produce your Notice if one covering your processing doesn’t currently exist.

Collecting data in the form of photographs / video recordings

Personal data includes a person’s image so when taking photographs or recordings of events on campus we need to highlight to those whose images might be captured that we are collecting this data and to explain what we are going to use it for. You don’t necessarily need consent as the lawful basis under UK GDPR to use the photos / videos but you do need to provide clear details (ideally in advance) of how the individual can ask that their image is not used. Best practice is to obtain permission even if you are relying on another lawful basis under UK GDPR. For some purposes (such as marketing) you will need to obtain written permission in advance in any event.

If the event is by invitation only, a Privacy Notice should be included with the invitation explaining that photographs / video recordings may be taken. If the event is open to all, a Privacy Notice should still be made available and appropriate for the intended audience and one easy way of doing this is by posting QR codes in the area of the event (although a paper copy should also be on display for those without their phones).

When the events include anybody under the age of 18 years old, their parents / guardians also need to be made aware and give their permission for the use of the images.

Mailing Lists – moderated, even for moderators

The cause of many data breaches is sending an email containing personal data to the wrong recipient. If this email is sent to an unmoderated mailing list, it is potentially even worse as it will be sent to multiple wrong recipients!

One control that can be put in place is to use Sympa to manage your mailing list. Sympa gives you an option to require all emails – even those written by a moderator – to be sent to the moderators for distribution. By having this control in place, the risk of sending an email to an entire mailing list of incorrect recipients is significantly reduced.

If you are a moderator of a mailing list, please select this option in Sympa. If you manage a mailing list outside of Sympa, please contact IT Helpdesk <helpdesk@kent.ac.uk> for assistance with the initial set up.

If you have any questions not answered on the Assurance and Data Protection sites, or if you need further support and guidance please do get in touch with the team by emailing dataprotection@kent.ac.uk.

Laura Pullin
Head of Data Protection / Data Protection Officer (DPO)

Staff and students are invited to the launch of the fourth volume of Kent Review in Keynes Senior Common Room on Tuesday 17 January at 18.00.

Like its predecessors, this latest anthology will showcase some of the best work emerging from the University’s postgraduate writers in Creative Writing. The edition will also feature the winning entries to the new School of English undergraduate writing competition, and an editorial by Professor David Herd.

To celebrate the launch there will be a number of readings, as well as a drinks reception, and copies of the Review available to purchase. Everyone is welcome to help celebrate the launch.

Kent Review, Volume 4 is home to a remarkable selection of poetry, short stories, non-fiction and novel extracts. The collection demonstrates the skill and artistic ambition of the writers at the University, with pieces that are each surprising, disarming, transporting, fresh; and collectively indicative of the vibrant, diverse work emerging from the Centre for Creative Writing.

The Vice Chancellor’s Cup is off to a flying start with 14 events scheduled throughout the year.

Staff teams recently completed in a series of team events to claim their spot on the leader board.

With ‘It’s a Knock-out’ taking place first, teams were set four timed challenges to complete, scoring points in each round.

Challenges included blindfolded games, agility courses and communication skills. Liquorice All Sports took the top spot, closely followed by LeJendSS and Living La Vida Mocha.

The second VC Cup event ran over two lunches in December, with a host of teams competing in a Volleyball tournament. Teams gave it their all, with CEMS dominating the competition with just two players!

Following these events, the top 4 teams are:

1^st place – Liquorice All Sports (35pt)

2^nd Place – Marlowe’s Marauders (34pt)

3^rd place – Campus Sporting Exploits (34pt)

4^th place – Living La Vida Mocha (30pt)

Find out more about the VC Cup, read the event highlights, check out the leader board and view our upcoming events online.

Ready to dust off your racquet, or just looking to take up a new sport, the tennis centre has you covered!

Kent Sport is home to one of the largest indoor tennis centres in Kent, boasting four, full-size acrylic tennis courts, suitable for all levels of tennis from competitive to recreational, alongside high-quality, professional LTA coaching. Based at The Pavilion, our Tennis and Events Arena is open to Kent Sport members throughout the year. Tennis is a great way to meet new people and improve your physical and mental health!

There are a couple of ways you can get involved. For those of you who feel semi confident to just have a go, take out a free Pay to Play membership with Kent Sport. This enables you to book a court through the online portal whenever you fancy a game. Staff Pay to Play sessions are just £5.50! Kent Sport also offers Premium Plus, Premium, and Plus membership packages, all offering different levels of membership access. You can check these out on our website.

Alternatively, if you would like a little more input, book a place on one of our LTA group coaching sessions for just £10 per session. Develop your tennis skills with our fully qualified LTA coaches. Nick Skelton is an LTA Level 5 Coach and leads the team of LTA-qualified coaches at Kent Sport. Sessions run over one hour and are the perfect place to meet new people and enhance your technique.

To find out more about these sessions, read our latest blog!

Great news, Carols around the Tree returns this month! Sadly the event was cancelled last year due to the sudden return of lockdown.  This year however, carols will be sung! So come along on Tuesday 13 December from 17:00 and enjoy singing on the Registry Lawn.

Please take a look at our online song sheet.

What we have in store

17:00 – Staff and students gather on the Registry Lawn for free mulled-wine and warm chestnuts (Brass ensemble and Ukrainian Choir take their places)

17:05 – Ukrainian Choir Sing 2 songs (unaccompanied) in Ukrainian

17:10 – Concert begins with brass ensemble playing Silent Night – Ukrainian choir (only) to sing first verse in Ukrainian. Staff and students to join and sing second verse onwards.

17:15 – Everyone sings remaining carols together

17:40 – Ends

We hope to see you there!

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 14 December from 14.00 – 16.30 (GMT), with the theme ‘What role does Learning Design play in student retention, progress and success?’

Agenda:

• 14:00 – 14:05 – Dr Phil Anthony (University of Kent): Introduction
• 14:05 – 14:20 – Professor Susan Orr (Pro Vice Chancellor: Education, De Montfort University): A Review of Blended Learning in Higher Education
• 14:20 – 14:35 – Molly Edwards & Yuvin Kim (Students at UCL): Students’ perspectives on the impact of learning design on progress and success
• 14:35 – 14:50 – Dr Martin Compton (UCL): Digitally accessible learning design
• 14:50 – 15:05 – Catriona Matthews & Paul Astles (Open University): The role of Learning Design at The Open University in supporting student retention and success
• 15:05 – 15:15 – Break
• 15:15 – 15:30 –  Mary Jacob (Aberystwyth University): Designing Active Cognitive Tasks to promote learning
• 15:30 – 15:45 – Alison Webb (University of Kent): What role does Learning Design play in student retention, progress and success?
• 15:45 – 16:00 – Rob Clarke, Pete Sparkes and Yasi Tehrani (UAL): Student retention in short courses in the arts
• 16:00 – 16:15 – Assistant Professor Selma Yildrim (University of Chicago) Three-point perspective and designing a course

Please share

Colleagues from outside the University of Kent are very welcome to join this community and so feel free to circulate. Please ask anyone wishing to join to complete the Digitally Enhanced Education registration form if they haven’t already. We add them to the mailing list linked to the series, and they will receive the joining link via email on 18 October.

If you would like to present at a future event, please submit a short synopsis and Phil Anthony will be in touch.

Since last month’s update we are pleased to confirm the release of new features and functionality which are now live and available to staff and student users of KentVision.

The release has introduced standardised and streamlined processes across the student lifecycle that will improve the experience for both staff and students.

Some examples of this include:

• Functionality to enable finance colleagues to create and approve manual scholarship awards for the previous academic year.
• Enhanced congregations’ functionality to enable colleagues to sort through to review and update transcripts more efficiently and effectively – reducing the administration burden on staff.
• Introduced functionality to export intermitted student data – enabling improved data analysis.
• Various amendments to approximately 20 system screens (e.g., student support, Individual Learning Plans, PGR Management, Advisors) to ensure a student’s legal name is updated to display their preferred name – improving student wellbeing.
• Introduced functionality to display extended assignment due dates to academic colleagues when approved via Extenuating Circumstances. In addition, the self-certification period for extenuating circumstances has been updated and amended to seven days.
• Automated processes and communications for intermission and withdrawals via email text updates.
• Successfully implemented the data integration processes between KentVision and the CRM.

This release is the culmination of hard work, and we commend everyone involved for their work – including the KentVision Project Team, IS colleagues, and the users of the system dedicating time to ensure improvements are realised.

Next Steps

• Technology and process improvements to continue such as Change of Circumstances and Core Record functionality to enable bulk updates to records (e.g., bulk course changes).
• Work continues to integrate the student attendance data from Moodle into KentVision – ensuring reporting of student attendance is fit for purpose and meets our compliance requirements.
• Business readiness activities, including transition plans and training and communications.
• We are pleased to announce the first of our scheduled KentVision Drop-In Sessions (6 Dec 2022 – 10.00-12.00 – Rutherford N4.N1). Come along and bring any KentVision related questions to our friendly training team in-person. It is a good opportunity to address your queries and demonstrate functionality side by side. Tea, coffee, and snacks will be provided!

We are pleased to announce the first of our scheduled KentVision Drop-In Sessions, will be taking place on Tuesday 6 December from 10.00 – 12.00 at Rutherford N4.N1.

Come along and bring any KentVision related questions to our friendly training team in-person. It is a good opportunity to address your queries and demonstrate functionality side by side.

Tea, coffee, and snacks will be provided!

As Rutherford is notoriously difficult to navigate, an envoy will be waiting to take you up to N4.N1 in the main entrance just before 10.00.