The Centre for the Study of Higher Education warmly congratulates the following colleagues who applied for Senior Fellowship of the HEA through the Route to Recognition for Experienced Staff (RRES) and successfully gained national recognition for their leadership, excellence, expertise and commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning.

Dr Tracee Green – Centre for Child Protection

Vanisha Jassal – Centre for Child Protection

Dr Suhraiya Jivraj – Kent Law School

Debbie Kemp – Kent Business School

Dr Lex Mauger – School of Sport and Exercise Sciences

Steve Robinson – Kent Business School

Sophia Vanttinen-Newton – Centre for English and World Languages

Dr Rocio von Jungenfeld – School of Engineering and Digital Arts

Dr Samantha Winter – School of Sport and Exercise Sciences

The University of Kent’s Annual Learning and Teaching Conference will take place on Monday 15 June 2020 in the Darwin Conference Suite.

This year, we will be focusing on enhancing relevance: how we connect academic learning with the wider world. We invite proposals for workshops, discussion papers, mini-presentations and posters from University of Kent staff involved in teaching or supporting students’ learning (including GTAs, HPLs and professional services staff) that address the conference theme. We particularly encourage collaborative presentations with students. Sessions should involve reflection, exploration, scholarship and evaluation as well as describing activities undertaken.

The deadline for receipt of proposals is the 28 February. You can find more details of the theme and arrangements and a straightforward and friendly form to fill in on the events website 

To book please sign up via Eventbrite by 8 June 2020

The Annual Learning and Teaching Conference is open to all who are interested in celebrating our excellent teaching at Kent, improving our support for students’ learning, sharing good practice, and trying out new ideas. It’s a welcoming space for us to think, talk and learn together; but we know the impact lasts much longer than the day itself. From previous conferences have come successful funding bids, published papers, collaborative research, and changes to practice.

Please send us your proposals to heprogsadmin@kent.ac.uk and come along on the 15 June to join us.

If you have questions in the meantime, please get in touch with Dr Kathleen M Quinlan (K.M.Quinlan@kent.ac.uk).

Calling all University of Kent Staff, especially if based on the Medway campus for a Resilience & Wellbeing session being held next month!

When: Tuesday 4 February between 10.30 – 12.30 .

Where: At the Medway campus

You can book your place through Staff Connect.

The objectives of the session are:

• How to manage the balance between pressure, performance, wellbeing and resilience.
• How to use natural strengths in responding positively to workplace demands.

This workshop covers the capacity to maintain wellbeing and work performance when under pressure and during times of change.

This course is open to all members of staff so please feel free to come along!

Dr Colin Johnson from the School of Computing is to deliver a STEM@Kent lecture entitled ‘Will a Robot take my Job? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work.’

When: Wednesday 5 February from 17.00 – 18.00

Where: Grimond Lecture Theatre 3,

A new industrial revolution is upon us, as intelligent machines take the place of humans across the economy. The impact of this could be vast – from increasingly sophisticated robots carrying out manual work, to artificial intelligence doing work in the law and accounting, through to robots working in the most human of jobs such as health and social care. This talk will examine whether the hype around AI is justified, which areas of work this will revolutionise, and which jobs will be untouched.

Furthermore, he will discuss how the structure of the workplace and management will need to change, and where legal responsibility will sit in cases of error, harm or negligence. Of course, this revolution will not happen in a vacuum – in the final part of the talk he will consider how the economy and politics will need to change to cope with one of the most disruptive changes of the 21st century.

This talk is open to all and will be followed by a reception and networking event in the Aphro foyer.

To book this event please go to the Eventbrite website 

In an attempt to collect any wayward platters/plates/cups/saucers that may have been missed by our delivered catering team after an event, or are hiding at the back of the office kitchen cupboard somewhere over the last year, Kent Hospitality’s delivered catering team will be placing collection crates across campus on Monday 27th January for you to deposit any delivered catering equipment that we may have missed previously.

The team will be collecting these crates back up on Tuesday 28th January from midday, and we would be grateful if you could help us out by returning any delivered catering equipment you may find.

We will be placing collection crates in the following locations to make this as easy as possible:

• Chipperfield foyer

• Cornwallis East 1st floor kitchen

• Cornwallis North West outside SR3/4

• Cornwallis South kitchen opposite the student reception

• Create Café

• Darwin Reception

• Eliot Extension ground floor kitchen

• Eliot Reception

• Estates Customer Services

• Jarmen 2nd floor kitchen

• Kennedy foyer near SR1

• Keynes Reception

• Registry ground floor reception

• Rutherford annex ground floor kitchen

• Rutherford dining hall

• Sibson Cafe

• Sports Café

• Templeman Library Welcome Desk

If you have any equipment and are not near a drop-off point please email internalcatering@kent.ac.uk and we will arrange a separate collection.

Thank you in advance for all your help!

A new University campaign has been launched to support our final undergraduate year students – and we need your help to promote it!

The Finalists campaign www.kent.ac.uk/finalists showcases all the good work that colleagues across the University are already doing with final year and other students.

The aim of the campaign is to ensure that final year students feel cared for and equipped with the skills, knowledge and confidence to succeed once they graduate. This aligns with our broader University focus on welcome, induction and transitions – with this being a key transition stage for all students.

Colleagues are being encouraged to use the Finalist campaign to engage with our final year students by using the hashtag #KentFinalists, signposting final year undergraduate students to the Finalists website and adding events for final year students to the Finalists events calendar.

All downloadable resources for the Finalists campaign can be found on the SharePoint site for staff. Resources include templates for plasma screens, posters and digital assets as well as branded #KentFinalists images.

Students will receive an email this week inviting them to check out the new Finalists webpage and two further Finalist branded e-newsletters later this term.

To find out more, email communications@kent.ac.uk

In support of the University’s commitment to embedding Sustainability into our teaching, we are encouraging lecturers and teaching staff to pledge to incorporate the Sustainable Development goals into their teaching for one week.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Teach In is an NUS-coordinated campaign where universities across the UK aim to make links to the SDGs within their taught courses during the week of the 17 – 21 February 2020.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are 17 ‘global goals’, which set out targets to end poverty, protect the planet, and achieve prosperity for all by 2030. Alongside being a standalone goal, education is also vital for attaining all the other goals. Six years of NUS-led research has found that 60% of students, regardless of discipline, want to learn more about sustainability.

Lecturers and teaching staff interested in getting involved can:

• Identify one or more sessions where they can teach the SDGs during or after the week of the 17 – 21 February 2020.
• Pledge to take part on the SDG Teach In website
• Confirm to sustainability@kent.ac.uk that they are taking part – guidance can be provided to help plan their session

Catherine and Emily of the Sustainability Team are on hand to advise or support you in any way to help you get involved. This could be through case studies, debate, discussion, group work, or simulations and ideally, students will learn the relevance of the SDGs to their course.

urther information and Resources including 5, 10 and 30-minute session plans, can be found on the Estates page.

‘Parsing the Peace: Citizens in Civil War Peace Processes’ is the title of this year’s John Burton Lecture given by Professor Caroline Hartzell (Gettysburg College)

When: Thursday 6 February 2020 from 15.00 – 16.00

Where: Rutherford Lecture Theatre 1 (RLT1)

A drinks reception will take place afterwards in Rutherford Seminar Room 2, next door to RLT1

For this year’s annual John Burton lecture, the Conflict Analysis Research Centre welcomes the critically acclaimed Professor Caroline Hartzell (Gettysburg College) to hold a talk on Parsing the Peace: Citizens in Civil War Peace Processes. During this event, which continues the long-established series of John Burton lectures, Professor Hartzell will discuss the role of civic engagement in peace processes outside of traditional elite actor involvement. Furthermore, Professor Hartzell will guide the audience towards intricate and informed insights concerning the interplay between peace agreements and citizen involvement. Using her own words, the lecture will cover:

‘Much of what we know about peace processes centres on the interests of elite actors and the groups that they lead.  Seeking to parse the peace, this talk examines citizen engagement with civil war peace processes, focusing in particular on the relationship between citizens and peace agreements. To that end, I explore how citizens perceive and influence peace agreements, as well as how agreements influence citizens’ political behaviour and attitudes toward the peace in the wake of civil war’.

 Professor Hartzell is a Professor in the Political Science Department at Gettysburg College and was the founding director of the College’s Globalisation Studies program. Professor Hartzell teaches courses in International Relations. Her specialisation is in international political economy with an emphasis on issues of conflict and conflict management, development, and globalisation.

The lecture is open to all and free to attend with no booking necessary.

You are warmly invited to the Research Symposium on Graduate Outcomes: How can universities best prepare students for life after university?

When: Wednesday 25 March 2020 from 13:00 – 17:00.

Where: Grimond Lecture Theatre 3 and Aphra Foyer

To book your place, please sign up via Eventbrite by 18 March 2020.

While the UK higher education sector has been paying more attention to students’ employability in recent years, HESA’s revised measure of graduate outcomes now enables a broader view of how well students are doing 15 months after university. This symposium explores what academics, staff and students can do to best prepare graduates not only for employability, but for personally-fulfilling careers and lives.  Based on recent research, each speaker will take a different perspective on the symposium’s title question. This event is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Kent, with support from a grant from HECSU.

For further details please visit the CSHE website

The School of Engineering and Digital Arts is delighted to announce its latest public engagement lecture entitled: From ‘The Crown’ to ‘The Lion King’ – the importance of Visual Effects in Modern Film and TV by Dominik Platen, Lead 2D Artist at One of Us and Kent alumnus (Digital Visual Effects, 2013).

When: Monday 2 March from 18.00 – 19.00

Where: Jennison Lecture Theatre, School of Engineering and Digital Arts, Canterbury campus

The lecture will cover:

• Dominik’s study and career path
• What is VFX? Use of CGI vs. invisible effects/set-extensions
• Examples/breakdowns: Talking about both types of VFX using the examples of The Crown (Invisible, set-extension type work), and “The Lion King” (Photorealistic, fully-CG)
• The current state and future of the VFX industry in the UK

For a flavour of the talk, check out these video links:

• https://vimeo.com/370740219
• https://vimeo.com/191838262
• https://vimeo.com/248127865

After the lecture, there will be an opportunity to network and refreshments will be served.

Note that the lecture will appeal to a wide range of ages and backgrounds.  It is free and open to everyone.

Please book via the Eventbrite website