We are hosting our next Undergraduate Virtual Open Event on 3 October 2020, from 10.00 – 14.00 UK.

Our last undergraduate event last July was a great success with 1,652 attendees on the day, as it’s a virtual event we’re able to keep the link live for longer and saw new attendees join the event each day. Virtual open days are a great opportunity to all potential students to engage with course presentations from our specialist academics and attend live Q&A sessions, as well as find out more about our facilities on campus.

It would be a great help if our colleagues could promote the virtual event across their platforms, either on their school websites and on social channels.  As well as forwarding on to friends or family members who may be interested in our undergraduate courses at Kent. Please see further information about the event and register on the Virtual Open Day website.

Here’s some positive feedback from the last event: 

Dr Debbie Reed, the University’s Head of Digital and Lifelong Learning, has received an award for her outstanding contribution to the dental nursing profession.

Debbie was presented with the BADN 2020 Outstanding Contribution to Dental Nursing Professional Practice Award at the BADN 80th Anniversary Virtual Afternoon Tea.

Presenting the award, BADN President Jacqui Elsden said: ‘Over the last twenty five years or more, Debbie has contributed to the advancement of Dental Nurses across many areas of dentistry and has not only inspired myself to achieve my potential but has inspired many others to do so and has recently acquired her doctorate in Education, one of only a handful of Dental Nurses to do so.’

Debbie commented: ‘As an academic and a Doctor of Education, I am reassured to know that my work and research is valued, and moreover has had a practical application, in terms of the transformational opportunities it has provided, and will continue to provide, to those employed in the dental sector… I am humbled to know that I have been an inspiration to others.’

Debbie, a former BADN Chairman, trained as a dental nurse at the Royal Navy School of Dental Training in 1987. She went on to hold varying clinical and non-clinical posts over the next 20 years, working with all three Armed Forces organisations, in the UK and overseas, until she left the Royal Navy in 2007 and joined the staff at the University of Kent.

Debbie is registered with the General Dental Council and holds a number of additional professional and vocational qualifications and awards in education, leadership and management.

Find out more about the award on the BADN webpages.

As our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support.

Their weekly webinars continue this week (Monday 7 September – Friday 11 September) are as follows:

Monday 7 September 2020 –  ‘‘How Care first can support you & an update on our services’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link.

Tuesday 8 September 2020 – ‘‘Making positive changes to your wellbeing post lockdown’ ’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 9 September 2020 –  ‘Coping with uncertainty during COVID-19’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 10 September 2020 – ‘World Suicide Prevention day: Understanding suicide’
Time: 12.00-13.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 11 September 2020 – ‘What is Counselling & What to expect when you call’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Dr Stella Bolaki, Reader in American Literature and Medical Humanities in the School of English, has edited a special issue of The Journal of Medical Humanities on ‘Artists’ Books and Medical Humanities’.

The Journal of Medical Humanities is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of medicine and medical education. It is particularly interested in three areas of investigation: medical humanities, cultural studies, and pedagogy.

This special issue developed from Stella’s research project Artists’ Books and Medical Humanities, brings together international contributors who are artists, scholars, educators, and archivists.

Collectively, the contributions demonstrate the importance of intimate, multi-sensory knowledge that this innovative art form offers in areas such as illness communication, pedagogy and public health. In addition to academic essays, the issue contains excerpts from five books that are part of Prescriptions: Artists’ Books, a recent acquisition of the University of Kent Special Collection & Archives. The books that were selected for inclusion in the special issue use different structures and formats.

They were photographed in such a way so as to give readers the possibility to experience the powerful effects of artists’ books, a medium which requires touching and handling. Finally, the edition features a response to the material by renowned book artist and visual theorist Johanna Drucker.

Stella’s open-access article, titled ‘Contemporary Artists’ Books and the Intimate Aesthetics of Illness’, examines artists’ books by three contemporary female artists: Penny Alexander, Martha A. Hall and Amanda Watson-Will. Interrogating narrative’s dominance in medical humanities research, it explores how artists’ books represent lived experiences of illness in a distinctively palpable way.

Drawing attention to the imaginative and aesthetic dimensions of such representations, the essay argues that artists’ books allow their makers an ‘intimate authority’ that extends beyond narrative legitimacy or a form of struggle against the medical gaze.

For more details, and to read some of the open access articles of this issue, please see the publisher’s website. 

Dr Olly Double, Reader in Drama, has just published a chapter in a new collection entitled Victorian Comedy and Laughter: Conviviality, Jokes and Dissent (Palgrave, 2020).

The book is an innovative collection of essays, and is the first to situate comedy and laughter as central rather than peripheral to nineteenth century life. It presents new readings of the works of Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, George Eliot, George Gissing, Barry Pain and Oscar Wilde, alongside discussions of much-loved Victorian comics like Little Tich, Jenny Hill, Bessie Bellwood and Thomas Lawrence. Tracing three consecutive and interlocking moods in the period, contributors to the collection engage with the crucial critical question of how laughter and comedy shaped Victorian subjectivity and aesthetic form.

Olly’s chapter is entitled ‘Deliberately Shaped for Fun by the High Gods’: Little Tich, Size and Respectability in the Music Hall’, and it explores the work of music hall comedian Harry Relph (1867–1926) – best known as Little Tich.

Little Tich is the subject of a mural at Kent (pictured), located outside the Aphra and Lumley Theatres.

To read more about the collection, please see the publisher’s page.

Good news – Progress Profiles have been relaunched and they are now even better!

Progress Profiles were launched by the Student Success Project as a pilot project in 2018.  They provided all undergraduate students, their Academic Advisers and Senior Tutors the opportunity to view SDS attendance and attainment data in a more graphical way.  Due to pilot’s success, the reports have been officially launched as a permanent resource in time for this academic year.

The Student Success Project listened to feedback from academic staff during the pilot and, based on that information, the new Progress Profiles are greatly improved.  The new reports are web based, rather than a pdf download, they are updated daily rather than twice termly, they have improved graphics and the ability to directly compare previous year’s information alongside current statistics.

The new Progress Profiles aim to facilitate the Academic Adviser consultation process by providing Academic Advisers and Senior Tutors with student data in a format which is quick and easy to digest.

A link to your students’ Progress Profile can be found on the Staff Guide, or via the link on the top banner of the Student Guide or directly using the following Progress Profiles link.

For further information about Progress Profiles, please visit the Student Success Project web page or contact studentsuccessproject@kent.ac.uk

As our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support.

Their weekly webinars continue this week  starting on Tuesday 1 September (due to Bank Holiday Monday) and are as follows:

Tuesday 1 September 2020 –  ‘How Care first can support you’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 2 September 2020 – ‘‘Making positive changes to your wellbeing post lockdown’ ’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 3 September 2020 –  ‘Managing stress as lockdown eases’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 4 September 2020 – ‘How Care first can support MHFA’s and Wellbeing Champions’
Time: 12.30-12.45 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

As many colleagues may know, the Director of Music, Sue Wanless, is retiring from the University after over thirty years dedicated to the extra-curricular musical life of the University.

For thirty-two years, Sue has been at the helm of the Music department,  conducting the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra each year in the epic annual Colyer-Fergusson concert in Canterbury Cathedral, as well as the University Camerata and other chamber groups.

From humble beginning in the Senate Building through to the opening of the purpose-built Colyer-Fergusson building, music has become a flourishing, vital part of the University’s creative life.

Aside from a busy life on campus, Sue has also  been part of the panel of judges for the Canterbury International Festival’s annual music bursary competition for young performers. Read more about Sue’s commitment to music-making on this blogpost.

As more of us start planning for a return to campus, it’s worth considering how we travel there. With the government keen for everyone to get back in the saddle and the University actively promoting cycling and walking, why not give cycling a go?

To encourage staff and students to walk and cycle to, from and around our campuses, Kent offers a range of incentives.

Here are the 10 things on offer to make cycling an easier option:

1. Staff Cycle to Work Scheme

The Staff Cycle to Work Scheme offers you the chance to purchase a brand new bike and accessories from a range of participating local stores at a discounted rate. Further information is available on the Staff Finance page.

2. Local bike shop discounts

Some local bike shops, including Canterbury Cycles in Canterbury and Bikes Bike Bikes in Gillingham, offer Kent staff and students 10-15% discounts on bike purchases. You can find further information on Travel Discounts.

 3. Business bike mileage allowance

Staff who use their bike to travel to and from a meeting can claim 20p per mile. For more information, see ourFinance webpages.

4. Cycle shelters

There are over 2,000 cycle parking spaces available across the Canterbury and Medway campuses. This includes several covered and secure (KentOne card-access) shelters.

You can view the location of all the Canterbury-based bike lock-ups via this map. Shelters on the Medway campus are located at the Drill Hall Library, Central Avenue and Nelson Building.

5. University cycle groups

KUBUG is an independent cycling group at the University. It’s open to all staff and students who have an interest in cycling in and around the Canterbury campus. You can interact with other cyclists via the free online forum.

University of Kent Cycling (UKC) is a multi-discipline sports club run by Kent Union. It caters for all levels and anyone who loves having fun on two wheels!

6. Safety tips and advice

The University offers plenty of safety tips and advice when it comes to cycling, including how to check your bike is fit for purpose. See their advice on the Transport page.

7. Cycle events

Cycle events, from fun activities to organised bike rides, take place at the University throughout the year.To find out what’s on when, keep an eye on the transport calendar or follow @unikent_travel.

8. Kent cycle routes

Kent boasts some fantastic cycle routes and footpathsto enjoy both for leisure and as direct routes to and from our campuses. The Crab & Winkle Way, for example, is a picturesque off-road link between Canterbury and Whistable.

9. Cycle training course

If you want to learn how to ride a bike or need more confidence riding to work, then make the most of the cycle training courses provided by Kent County Council.

10. Cycling updates

For cycling updates at the University, follow  @unikent_travel and/or sign up to the Transport team newsletters.

If you have other useful tips for cycling to and from the University of Kent, please share them with us at stories@kent.ac.uk