Author Archives: Annabel Chislett

Congratulations to our Senior Fellows

The Centre for the Study of Higher Education and UELT are delighted to congratulate eight colleagues who have recently achieved professional recognition from the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

These colleagues are the first to apply for Senior Fellow recognition via the Route to Recognition for Experienced Staff (RRES), accredited by the HEA in September 2017 and in gaining HEA Fellowship status provides them with national recognition of their excellence, expertise and commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning.

The successful applicants were:

  • Dr Caroline Chatwin – Reader in Criminology, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
  • Rebecca Coleman – EAP Tutor, Centre for English and World Languages
  • Chloe Courtenay – EAP Tutor, Centre for English and World Languages
  • Charlene Earl – International Pathways Manager, Centre for English and World Languages
  • Prof Nick Grief – Dean for Medway and Professor, Kent Law School
  • Dr Sarah Johns – Senior Lecturer in Evolutionary Anthropology, School of Anthropology and Conservation
  • Dr Stefan Rossbach – Senior Lecturer in Politics, School of Politics and International Relations
  • Dr Anna Stepanova – Lecturer in Economics, School of Economics

Prof April McMahon (DVC, Education) commented  ‘I am pleased that experienced colleagues who have taken leadership roles in the support and enhancement of learning and teaching can now be recognised in this way with their excellent work being promoted through our ongoing New Approaches to Teaching for Experienced Staff at Kent and achievements celebrated at the University Teaching Prizes ceremony later this year.

We are currently supporting 25 academic and professional support staff through this programme. If you are interested in gaining recognition from the HEA, you can find further information about the application process here Individual queries should be addressed to Dr Julia Hope recognition@kent.ac.uk

Free English classes

You can join CEWL’s Free English language classes if your first language is not English. They are taught every weekday from 18 June to 19 July by students on the CELTA teacher training course. You can also earn employability points for attending the classes

What do the classes cover?

They cover the four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking, as well as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. You will have the chance to meet new people and practice speaking English.

For more information, click here

Or to book your place, please email: cewlcelta@kent.ac.uk

Survey

Research survey

You are invited to take part in a short 5 minute survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MAReseach2018 and subsequent focus group (if you wish) to contribute to some research currently being undertaken on why some students breach non-academic discipline regulations and establish if UK Universities go too far or not far enough in attempting to control student behaviour on and off of campus. The survey will be open until 6 April 2018.

The Main focus of the study is to establish what are the reasons are for growing numbers of student misconduct on and off campus in the UK, how Universities currently manage student misconduct and how UK institutions collect and synthesis data to inform policies, procedures and Regulations designed to address student misconduct.

Why have I been chosen?

You have been chosen as University records identify you as a current student at the University of Kent.

Do I have to take part?

No, participation is entirely voluntary.

What will happen to me if I take part?

You are invited to a) complete a survey, and b) confirm whether you wish to volunteer to participate in a one-hour focus group. Focus groups will be arranged to minimise inconvenience to participants.

Benefits of taking part

Your participation in this research can result in a number of benefits, including

  • Feeding into University non-academic discipline regulations for current and future students.
  • Feeding into further research in the areas of student discipline

You need to be aware that

  • Data from this study will inform the development of policy and practice within the University.  All participant contributions will be anonymised and used only to illustrate broad themes and findings. Your confidentiality and anonymity will be maintained.
  • There will be consultation between the researcher and participants regarding the data.
  • Data from this study may also be used for publication and disseminated at conferences.  Information about or from participants used for external purposes will be anonymised.  The University will not be identified by name but given a pseudonym and identified only by key characteristics and mission, enabling other researchers to consider the implications of the research for their own contexts.
  • You will have access to the report and findings if you so wish.

Contact for further information

Alison Mansell, Student Conduct and Complaints Manager, M1.02 Keynes College, University of Kent, a.mansell@kent.ac.uk

Go Abroad

Go Abroad Photo and Video Competition – £200 worth of Amazon Vouchers to be won!

International Partnerships is reaching out to students who are currently on their term/year abroad 2017-18, either at Kent, or at one of our partner universities across the globe. Send your best photos and videos capturing those special moments for a chance to win an amazon voucher.

For more information see: https://www.kent.ac.uk/goabroad/photo-video-competition.html

Online module registration (OMR) extended

Online Module Registration (OMR) EXTENDED to 12pm, Monday 26 March 2018

Don’t miss your opportunity to pick the modules you want to study next year

Extended to 12pm, Monday 26 March, if you’re a stage one or two student, you must choose the modules you want to study in 2018/19.

You will need to log into your SDS to submit your choices.

Guidance available here

OMR is not first come first served, but you must ensure that you have submitted your selections by Monday 26 March in order to give you the best opportunity to register for your preferred choice of module.

If you have any questions please contact us csao@kent.ac.uk

Follow us: @UniKent_CSAO

Ahoy there! SMFA music students lead creative project on HMS Gannet

On 14 March SMFA music students worked with The Dockyard Development Trust and Kings Hill School to lead a creative music project on HMS Gannet in the Captain’s Cabin. They also had a tour of the ship.

Music Education students from Level 2 designed an interactive performance and composition workshop inspired by the Gannet, life at sea, sea shanties and film music inspired by the sea.  The children learned some Pirate Metal, sea songs, took part in a musical “boat race”, and composed and performed their own pieces based on the sights and sounds of the day.

Says organiser, SMFA Lecturer in Music, Jackie Walduck , “The project is a fantastic opportunity for students to engage in the kinds of arts events taking place all over the UK, in which musicians work alongside museums, galleries, arts venues, orchestras, record labels or festivals to create accessible projects for members of the community.”

National Archives Accreditation awarded to Special Collections and Archives

Information Services’ Special Collections & Archives team are proud to have been awarded Archive Service Accreditation from the National Archive.

On Monday 19 March our accreditation was officially recognised by the National Archives’ Director of Public Engagement Caroline Ottaway-Searle and Sector Development Manager Hannah Jones.

This accreditation, from the UK Archive Service Accreditation Partnership is the UK quality standard which recognises good performance in all areas of archive service delivery. The standard looks at an organisation’s ability to develop, care for, and provide access to its collections, bringing the total number archive services achieving this to 104 nationwide.

‘We are delighted to have received accredited status from The National Archives, this is a fantastic achievement and recognition nationally for our service and teams delivering it. Achieving accredited status demonstrates that the University of Kent’s Special Collections and Archives met clearly defined national standards relating to management and resourcing, in the care of our unique collections and what the service offers to our entire range of users.’ Karen Brayshaw, Special Collections and Archives Manager, University of Kent.

The University of Kent’s Special Collections & Archives manage the University of Kent’s unique and distinctive collections so that they are preserved and accessible for the benefit of teaching, scholarship and society. Located in the Templeman Library on the Canterbury campus they collect, curate, and manage material which supports the University’s research and teaching.

The collections, numbering over 150, are open to everyone, whether for personal interest or academic research including these specialisms:

  • the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive and popular and comic performance from the Victorian era to the present, including pantomime, melodrama and variety works
  • the British Cartoon Archive and other cartoon artwork and publications, particularly satirical works
  • the history of the University of Kent and the local area
  • photographs, scrapbooks, engineer records, and published books relating to wind and watermills
  • collections of 20th century prose and poetry first editions.
This event is the first of a series, celebrating 50 years of the Templeman Library during Our Templeman Library Celebration Week 19-23 March 

Gordon Lynch on the Catholic Church’s role in child migration

Following on from his research contribution to the Government’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Gordon Lynch, Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology in the Department of Religious Studies, has contributed a piece to The Tablet website, the international weekly Catholic journal.

The article, entitled ‘Why Serious Questions about Catholic Child Migration Need Answers’, builds upon Gordon’s research into child migration in the first half of the twentieth century. In the piece, he argues that the Catholic Church failed to take sufficient care in protecting child migrants from abuse, even by standards of that time.

‘There is clearly a somewhat greater recognition in the Church of its failings now,’ Gordon concludes. ‘The question remains whether this will translate into further action in supporting or compensating former child migrants. Will it also lead to more open reflection by the Church about how it could have given theological and pastoral sanction to so damaging a policy, including making its archives about its own organisational policies more open to external scrutiny?’

To read the full article, please see the page here.

Strange Umbrellas: SMFA’s Dr Blanca Regina, Associate Lecturer in Event and Experience Design, performing in London on Tuesday 20 March

Strange Umbrellas, a platform for free improvised music and visual art, was started in 2012 by Dr Blanca Regina with musician Steve Beresford.

An artist, teacher and curator who is currently involved in creating mixed media performances, installations and film, Dr Regina is a visiting research fellow at University of the Arts London. Her research and practice encompass expanded cinema, free improvisation, moving image, photography and audiovisual performance.  In 2010, she received a doctorate in Humanities from University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, with the thesis The VJ and audiovisual performance: towards a radical aesthetic of postmodernism.

She is curator at the London-based Music Hackspace, Live Cinema Foundation and Strange Umbrellas. With Matthias Kispert she founded the Material Studies Group, developing a series of workshops and performances around the production of sound with everyday objects.

You can hear Dr Regina here as part of Unpredictable: Conversations with Improvisers – a collection of videos that have grown out of deep research into the nature of Free Improvisation, its history in the UK and its international connections. Research and filming began in 2011 and it was directed and produced by artist, curator and educator Blanca Regina in collaboration with Steve Beresford and Pierre Bouvier Patron.  The series was commissioned by Sound and Music for the 50th anniversary of the British Music Collection.

Strange Umbrellas Number 19 will be on 20 March, in collaboration with CAFE OTO at 18-22 Ashwin St, London, Dalston E8 3DL.  Doors at 7.30 pm, performances at 8 pm. Tickets £8 £6 ADVANCE £4 MEMBERS.

More info go to our web page.