To help with the rising cost of living, we have introduced a £3.60 meal deal in Rutherford Dining Hall (Canterbury) at lunch (12:00-14:00) and dinner time (17:00-20:00), every day of the week!
For staff the meal deal is £3.60 as this includes VAT.
You can choose from two options, including a vegetarian or meat option. Both come with freshly cooked vegetables, sides and salad.
You can see all the financial support available to staff on our Cost of Living Support webpages.
Building an inclusive postgraduate community is an important priority for the University and one of our specific goals is to reduce the gap between proportions of white and black students undertaking PhDs.
To support this work, the Graduate and Researcher College is hosting two online workshops for staff led by Leading Routes on increasing the representation of black students in doctoral training and creating more inclusive research cultures. Leading Routes are leading contributors to this work and their report, The Broken Pipeline, is playing a key role in shaping national policy debates.
Both workshops are open to all Academic, Research and Professional Services staff.
The first workshop, ‘The Pipline: Challenging Meritocracy and Acknowledging Structural Barriers for Black Students’ will run on Monday 14 November.
Book your place by visiting this webpage.
The second workshop, ‘Changing Cultures: Practical Steps Towards Long-Term Change’, will run on Wednesday 16 November .
Book your place by visiting this webpage.
Professor Shane Weller, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation has welcomed this initiative saying, “I am delighted that the University of Kent is working with Leading Routes to support the next generation of Black academics. This initiative lies at the heart of our commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive research culture both at Kent and across the UK.”
The workshops come alongside the announcement of a new set of University scholarships for BAME and ‘First in Family’ Kent graduates who wish to study for a taught postgraduate programme here – each worth £5,000. Further details on these will be available on the University’s scholarships pages soon.
Building on this year’s Staff Conference in September, our staff webchat programme returns this month with regular sessions planned throughout the year. This is a chance for everyone to come together and hear updates on key areas of activity across the University, while also giving you the change to ask questions and have your say on our wider plans
This year’s first session is on Thursday 17 November at 12.30 – 13.30, which will be focused on the Cost of Living. Senior representatives from HR, Estates & Commercial Services and Finance will talk through work going on to support students and staff with rising costs, plus what this means for us as a University more widely.
Save the date for this session and watch out for the sign up form next week.
Future sessions will follow in December on our new brand, with a full programme to follow throughout 2023.
If you’ve got an idea for a Community Catch Up theme then get in drop us an email at communcations@kent.ac.uk
If you missed any of our Staff Conference back in September you can catch up on recordings from the main sessions by visiting our Staff Conference pages.
You can also watch recordings from the breakout sessions, including Outreach and widening participation and Making content and learning accessible via this link.
Come join us for a special lunchtime concert on Weds 9 November at 13.10 at the Colyer-Fergusson Hall.
Before they head down to the Marlowe to perform as part of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera production that evening, players from the Touring Orchestra Pit Perfect scheme will present a Lunchtime Concert featuring music by Puccini, Torelli and Schubert.
After the performance, members of the touring orchestra will lead a workshop with students in the University String Sinfonia, which people are also welcome to watch.
For more details please visit the website.
Admission is free, with a suggested donation of £3. The Music Department’s Lunchtime Concert series is generously sponsored by Furley Page Solicitors.
This year the University Kent is applying for University of Sanctuary status. As part of the City of Sanctuary movement, the Universities of Sanctuary network aims to ‘make Higher Education institutions places of safety, solidarity and empowerment for people seeking sanctuary’.
To help ensure that the University’s application process is properly reflective and self-critical, the Migration and Movement Signature Research Theme is holding a series of seminars throughout the year that address the question ‘What is Sanctuary?’
Speakers from a range of disciplines, career stages and backgrounds will discuss what sanctuary means and entails. Contributions will be a mix of academic talks and reflections on lived experience.
All sessions are online. Everybody is invited to join the conversation.
Sheona York, Reader in Law and Clinic Solicitor (Kent Law School)
This paper will present a history of recent sanctuary movements in the US and the UK. It will show that where true sanctuary is offered it is frequently as protection against the State itself and the State’s unjust laws. The paper will conclude by considering what it can mean for a university to offer sanctuary and how the University of Kent can support people whose status in the UK is rendered precarious by current immigration laws.
Dr Julia Hope, Lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice (Centre for the Study of Higher Education)
Building on research funded by the Migration and Movement Signature Research Theme, this paper focuses on Syrian academics exiled in Turkey. It considers the form of professional development support that can be offered to communities of displaced academics and the connections and intercultural exchange that arise from such opportunities. The paper thus considers what sanctuary means when working remotely with people who have experienced displacement.
Thomas Tegento, Student on the MA in Physical Theatre (Department of Drama and Theatre)
Thomas has been a student at the University of Kent for 4 years and has recently completed an MA in Physical Theatre. He is a refugee and came to Kent from a care service background. He published his first book, The Seventh Neck, in 2020 and is now doing dance and movement related creative practices with community theatre companies. He is interested in what total arts, physical and movement practices can offer in building the wellbeing of communities. He will speak about the meaning of sanctuary from the perspective of his lived experience.
Click this link to join the zoom meeting
Dr Lucy Williams, Senior Visiting Research Fellow (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research)
This paper will consider sanctuary in a time of ‘crisis’. East Kent, and especially Dover and Manston, are yet again in the eye of the migration storm. In this fevered atmosphere what is the role of ‘sanctuary’? Policy makers rely on closely prescribed (yet flexible) categories to sift the worthy from the unworthy but in forcing people to prove their lives fit into these categories, experience is simplified, and the person is lost. Can encouraging sanctuary in our communities and workplaces be a way to bring attention back to the individual to challenge both policy and public portrayals of migration?
Dr Rachel Gregory Fox, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (School of English)
This paper will consider the subject of the camp as presented in Yousif M. Qasmiyeh’s Writing the Camp. While refugee camps, in some respects, represent places of apparent safety, community, and shelter, they are also contingent and precarious. The paper will consider how these two aspects of the camp call into question the possibility of its status as a place of sanctuary. Qasmiyeh’s poetry sets institutional oversight and international charitable aid within the camp alongside what Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh identifies as ‘refugee-refugee relations’. The paper considers how Qasmiyeh thus disrupts more centralised views of host-relations, hospitality and sanctuary.
Basma El-Dhouki, GCDC Doctoral Candidate (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research)
Basma is a Palestinian refugee living and working in Lebanon. For twelve years she has been active in humanitarian and development work with refugees and asylum seekers within UNHCR, UNRWA and international NGOs in Lebanon and Syria. Her work has focused on sexual and gender based violence, child protection and general protection, prevention and response programs. Basma’s PhD focuses on “The role of Refugee-Led Organisations in providing protection and assistance for displaced communities in the Lebanon, Syria and Jordan”. The project explores the nature of refugee-led organisations, the factors conditioning their impact and interventions, and the inclusion of refugees in their own development. Basma’s talk will address the question of sanctuary from the perspective of her professional background.
Click this link to join zoom meeting
For more information on the Migration and Movement Signature Research Theme contact
srt-mm-lead@kent.ac.uk
Growing Kent and Medway (a collaborative research and innovation cluster) has developed special focus topics aiming to pull together the region’s academics and experts to promote innovation and find solutions for the current technical challenges.
Sustainable Packaging is one of the special focus topics, and the first industry forum was held in September. Find out more about how the event went.
On Tuesday 8 November, we are bringing together researchers who have some research interests that could contribute (directly or indirectly) towards developing sustainable packaging solutions.
This research sandpit will focus on Sustainable Packaging, Biorefining, and Biomass, and aims to explore how our organisations can work together and help develop future ideas.
If you would like to attend, please email Dr Lori Fisher l.fisher@kent.ac.uk, who can register your details.
The Estate Customer Services and Print Centre would love to get your feedback on their services and invite you take part in their annual short satisfaction survey.
The Estates Customer Services Centre acts as the key contact point for all enquiries regarding services provided by the Commercial Services & Estates Department. They work in line with their Customer Services Policy, which is available to view on the department’s website.
The Print Centre provides high quality, cost effective print solutions, they will take care of the whole process of getting an item produced from the design to sourcing the best quality and value products.
The short survey should take no more than five minutes for you to complete and is open for two weeks, closing at midnight on 2 November.
Your views are very valuable as they will be vital in helping make improvements to their service.
The University’s Honorary Degrees Committee will meet in November and again in March 2023 and we are looking for nominations for the award of honorary degrees for the consideration of the Committee.
Anyone can put forward a nomination and to ensure the award of honorary degrees across a broad range of academic disciplines and subject areas it would be helpful to receive a number from each Division and from across the academic disciplines. You can find all the necessary criteria and guidance, including the nomination form, on the Honorary Degrees Committee SharePoint page.
Nominations should be returned by the 31 October 2022 for the November meeting, and 21 February 2023 for the March meeting by email to councilsec@kent.ac.uk
The Cycle Hub, our on-campus bike hire facility, has reopened for weekly and termly bike hire for all students and staff. Hire from a range of bikes and enjoy cycling around campus or take in the beautiful Kent countryside.
Hire prices are £50 for a term, £20 for one week*. To hire a bike, please visit the Cycle Hub at The Pavilion or complete the online form.
We also offer a range of maintenance services and shop items. See our website for more details https://www.kent.ac.uk/sports/cycle-hub
The Cycle Hub is open every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 14.00 and 18.00.
*A refundable deposit of £50 is required for both hire periods.
This is a walking event taking place on the 28 & 29 October at 18.00 for people who identify as female or non-binary.
Meet us at the Gulbenkian and join us for an evening walk to a secret location, where you’ll get a totally new view of our beautiful campus.
Ever:land at Night is a rare opportunity to be at one with nature, after dark, as part of a small group, sharing an immersive experience of landscape, and personal stories of our relationship to other life forms. This is collective time outside in the spirit of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing).
Following the lead of the Reclaim the Streets movement, EVER:LAND, led by artist and curator Emma Leach, is exclusively for people who identify as female or non-binary.
Students are free.
Staff can use code EVER50 to get £2.50 tickets.
Book ahead as spaces are limited for each walk.
To book please visit the Gulbenkian website.