Author Archives: Annabel Chislett

learning and teaching network

The Use of Interactive Classroom Experiments in Teaching

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning and Teaching Network session on Monday 26 March, 13.15-14.30 in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury.  The session titled ‘The Use of Interactive Classroom Experiments in Teaching’ is presented by Sylvain Barde, Edward Cartwright and Anna Stepanova from School of Economics.

Classroom experiments have become an increasingly common way of teaching economics and other social sciences in an engaging and fun way. But, implementing an experiment in the classroom involves significant costs and this understandably deters many lecturers from using them.

In this session we will discuss our experience running classroom experiments over many years and also chart progress on a recent project to develop experiments using o-Tree. o-Tree is new open-source software that allows for interactive experiments that can be performed easily on smartphones and laptops etc. This has the potential to revolutionize how we run classroom experiments because it allows for easy to run, quick, large scale interactions. For instance, an asset market, social dilemma or voting mechanism could be run in a large lecture theater with instantaneous feedback on the overhead to inform learning. This is a step beyond existing classroom response systems. Students can also be given unique identifiers to participate in a number of experiments over the course of a module or degree program.

To book a place please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk

Kent Alumni Pub Night

Kent Alumni Pub Night: Careers Advice and Mentoring

The Alumni Pub Nights series is Kent’s social and networking series for alumni and students. The next Pub Night will be on Tuesday 27 March with the theme of career advice and mentoring. We’d love you to see you there to catch up on news from Kent and socialise with current students and fellow alumni.

The University of Kent’s Careers and Employability Service will be joining us to talk about what help they can give students, staff and alumni and how the mentoring platform, KEW-NET, could be of use to you.

Alumni should come along to find out how you can help a Kent student progress in their career by mentoring, talking on campus, taking part in Kent’s Employability Festival or taking on a student for work experience. This is also a great opportunity for 1st or 2nd year students to come along to find out upcoming graduate careers fairs and work experience opportunities.

We will be at the Miller’s Arms in Canterbury on Tuesday 27 March from 18.00 – 20.00. Please still come along even if you don’t need careers advice to meet with current students and fellow alumni! First drink and nibbles provided. Please let us know you are coming along by registering here.

And join the event on Facebook.

apprenticeship development fund

Applications invited for University degree apprenticeship development fund

£150K of funding is available to departments wishing to develop new academic programmes to underpin higher or degree apprenticeships. Funding can be used to support activity such as employing new staff or developing learning materials.

Currently Kent has over 140 apprentices and offers the following apprenticeships:

•       Laboratory Science underpinned by FdSc/BSc Applied Bioscience, FdSc/BSc Applied Chemical Sciences

•       Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship underpinned by BSc Management.

Funding is offered by the Centre for Higher and Degree Apprenticeships (CHDA) a PSD established to support the delivery of apprenticeships. CHDA handles student administration and recruitment for apprenticeship programmes, allowing departments to focus on the delivery of the underpinning degree.

Funding proposals should identify an apprenticeship that will be supported by the development of a new academic programme. The full list of apprenticeship standards available for delivery, as well as those in development is available here.

We will accept proposals for funding to develop both standards approved for delivery and those still under development. We are focusing on developing provision at levels 6 and 7 only and applications should be to support apprenticeships at these levels.

Examples of apprenticeships applications may align to:

•       Advanced Clinical Practitioner (L7)

•       Animator (L7)

•       Bioinformatics Scientist (L7)

•       Creative Digital Designer (L4-6)

•       Ecologist (L7)

•       Internet of Things (L7)

•       Journalist (L4-6)

•       And many more….

Applications should be in the form of an e-mail (endorsed by head of department) detailing:

•       The apprenticeship and academic qualification for which funds are sought.

•       The intended activity/activities to be funded.

•       Expected launch date of apprenticeship programme.

•       Amount of funding requested.

Deadline for applications is 6th April 2018 to s.s.wildman@kent.ac.uk.  Applications will be considered by the CHDA Steering Group and decisions endorsed by Faculty Deans.  All funds must be spent in academic year 2018/19.

Deborah Molloey

Congratulations to Deborah Molloy, winner of the International Women’s Day competition

Deborah Molloy, a member of the Graduate School team, has been named the International Women’s Day competition winner by the Transatlantic Literary Women team for her ‘fascinating and informative piece on Canadian author, Margaret Atwood.’

You can read the official announcement and Deborah’s piece here.

Deborah joined the Graduate School in November 2014 and began a part-time PhD in 20th Century American Women’s Literature in September. Congratulations to Deborah on this accomplishment from the Graduate School team!

Call for papers: ‘Pragmatics, Discourse, and Society’

PhD students in the Department of English Language & Linguistics and the School of Politics and International Relations are co-organising a transdisciplinary colloquium on Pragmatics, Discourse, and Society’ to be held on Tuesday 16 July 2018.

The purpose of the colloquium is to bring together PhD students and Early Career Researchers from a wide range of disciplines within the Humanities and Social Sciences with a common interest in the role of language in shaping discourse(s), culture, and society.

Through language, we create meanings, power relations, identities, and interpersonal ties. Given its social function, it is unsurprising that many researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences examine aspects of culture and society through a linguistic or discursive lens. This event aims at creating bridges between different research strands of and approaches to discourse in a wide sense. It will also function as a platform and networking opportunity for academics who are at beginning of their careers.

The organisers encourage submissions from a wide range of discourse-theoretical approaches. For a list of suggested topics, please click here.

Presentations should be approximately 20 minutes in length. Please submit abstracts of approximately 300 words (excluding bibliography) containing title, outline and up to five keywords as a PDF via EasyChair here.

The deadline for submission is 23.00 on Monday 9 April 2018.

The colloquium is funded by the Eastern Academic Research Consortium and organised by doctoral students at the University of Kent. It is further supported by the Centre for Language and Linguistics and the Centre for Critical Thought at Kent. The registration fee will be £15, covering lunch and refreshments.

Queries about the colloquium may be send to pradiso@kent.ac.uk.

For further details and updates, please see the blog page here.

kent bunny

Kent Bunny’s Epic Easter Egg Hunt is back!

Take part in the egg-citement for the chance to win one of over 100 prizes!

From 19-23 March there are over 100 eggs to find, and over 100 prizes to be won!

To join the fun, and be in with a chance to win cracking prizes, you need to find the eggs that Kent Bunny has hidden across the Canterbury and Medway campuses, as well as at the University’s centres in Paris and Brussels. He has also hidden some ‘onscreen’ – take a selfie in front of them and submit to Twitter, Instagram or post to the Facebook event using #KentBunny.

At the end of the week, everyone who has found an egg or taken a selfie with them will then be entered into the grand prize draw for the chance to win a very fancy camera or an iPad mini.

The competition is open to all who want to play. Get involved on twitter @unikentevents, Facebook @UniversityofKent, Instagram @unikentlive and online www.kent.ac.uk/events/

#KentBunny

GCRF-COMPASS project website now live

Professor Elena Korosteleva, Director (Professional Studies) of the Global Europe Centre was awarded nearly £3 million for The COMPASS project back in October 2017 which aims to open up communication with academics in former Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by setting up hubs of excellence in research in these countries.

She and her research partner, Professor Siddharth Saxena from Cambridge, say this is a research initiative to empower the target countries in research, impact governance and public policy outreach. COMPASS will enable a sea change in the UK’s strategic relationship with the region.

As part of the project, a website has been developed to showcase its work, research and events as well as information about the project and its investigators. The website is now live and can be found here.

GCRF-COMPASS is a capacity-building project  which seeks to establish ‘regional hubs of excellence’ at the top-level HEIs in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to enable them to become UK lead research partners and ‘nodes of excellence’ for knowledge production and transfer, across the region and globally.

medway course

Kent’s staff invited to the short CPD course Introduction to Interprofessional Working within an Organisational Context.

What impact do cultures, sub-cultures and frameworks related to leadership have on interprofessional collaborations within and across organisations?

This one day transdisciplinary CPD course on Saturday 24 March 2018, 09:00 – 17:00 is open to all individuals who undertake collaborative activity as part of their role. Collaboration may include working in partnership with colleagues within the organisation or may involve working collaboratively across organisations, for example; through projects, major initiatives such as mergers or in negotiating service strategies.

Working collaboratively with others requires skill and is strongly influenced by the context in which the collaboration takes place and the intention of the participants. The aim of this CPD event is to provide an understanding of concepts and theoretical frameworks related to collaborative leadership within and across organisations and to identify key cultural issues that might enhance or inhibit collaboration.

Topics covered will include:

  • Considering the emergence and purpose of organisational culture
  • Identifying norms and values related to organisational culture
  • Considering how cultures form
  • Critiquing evolving theories of leadership and their impact on collaborations
  • Reviewing the role of the team within collaborative practice

On completion of the event, you will be able to:

  • Critically appraise differing models, concepts and frameworks related to leadership and team working; specifically styles and approaches impacting on multidisciplinary working.
  • Demonstrate a clear understanding of the context, characteristics and culture of interprofessional and collaborative working and interaction, both within and across organisations.

The fee for this CPD event is £60.

This short CPD course can be booked and paid for via the University’s online store.

For more info: cppmedway@kent.ac.uk or call 01634888929

Event location: Centre for Professional Practice, Medway Building, Chatham Maritime, Medway, ME44AG, Room M2-28

finance

Loyalty Discount

Kent recognises the family and personal loyalty shown by registration on multiple degrees by siblings, children of alumni, husbands and wives studying together, or alumni studying for additional degrees when privately funded.

A discount of 10% of the first year’s tuition fee will be allowed on registration and payment of tuition fees, as set out below.

  • All applications must be made within the first year of study.
  • The deadline for applications from September starters is 31 December.
  • For January starters the deadline date for applications is 31 March.
  • Please note that if the student commences course part way through the year discount will only be given for the tuition fees for that particular academic year.

For more details please see our webpage.

Graduation photobooths

2018 Pre-Graduation Photobooths

Graduating this July?

The Congregations team will be on the Canterbury and Medway campuses this month for the 2018 Pre-Graduation Photobooths!

What is a photobooth? Graduating students come to see us on Jarman Plaza (Canterbury) or outside Medway building (Medway) to write a message and have a photo taken, ready to be displayed in the Cathedral for your guests to see before your graduation ceremony. So who do you want to thank? Family, friends, the library… caffeine..?

CANTERBURY

Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 March, 11.00-14.00
Jarman Plaza

MEDWAY

Wednesday 28 March, 11.00-14.00
Outside Medway building

See you then #KentGrads!

Follow us on social media for updates:
Facebook: /UniKentCongregations
Twitter: /UniKentCongs