Japanese students studying on short English courses at the Centre for English and World Languages, hosted and performed “A Taste of Japan” on 17 August in Keynes Teaching Foyer.

Harada Sensei and his local group, who train at the University sports centre, opened the event with an impressive demonstration of Karate. Kobe Women’s University students performed Obon Odori dances and encouraged the audience to join in. Other students taught participants to do origami and calligraphy (Shodo). There was also a fun ‘chopstick challenge’ game.

The very popular Japanese tea ceremony was performed by students from Kogakkan University in Ise, and is taught by tea ceremony masters Kodama-sensei and Ikeda-sensei, who teach in a part of the university dedicated to the practice.

Jim Higham, IT Service Desk Manager – who attended and photographed the event – said: “A taste of Japan was a feast – “Gochisousama deshita!”

Sent in by Ruth Newman

The University’s newly launched International Summer Schools have successfully finished their first summer occurrence at the University’s Canterbury campus since their re-establishment at the end of last year.

Students from all over the world signed up to participate in these postgraduate level Summer Schools covering Politics and International Relations, Psychology and Biotechnology. Students were able to gain an insight into studying with one of the UK’s top Universities; participating in expert seminars and workshops in their field of study and gaining valuable life skills to take with them in their continuing studies and into the workplace.

One student on the Psychology Summer School has said ‘I would say, these past two weeks have been the most exciting and incredible experience of my academic years so far. This summer school has given me the opportunity for self discovery, exploration of mind and most importantly, this is the place where I have found my true passion in academia and I believe a career arising in Psychology later!’

Summer School co-ordinator Sophie Punt has described this year’s schools as ‘diverse
and enriching opportunities allowing students to not only learn in depth about the subject matter but gain intercultural awareness and meet peers from all over the world. Students were very enthusiastic and made the most of their time in Canterbury.’

Part of the Internationalisation strategy of the University; the Summer Schools have been deemed a great success by Dr Anthony Manning, Dean for Internationalisation and as something he sees continuing to flourish in the future as Summer Schools gain precedent around the world.

Sent in by: s.punt@kent.ac.uk

Thembe Mvula (HIVE Ambassador for 2015-16, a member of Enactus Kent, and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies alumni) has been named Fellow. Thembe is one of two Enactus UK Alumni to be named Fellow.

Thembe is joining a group of Fellows made up of a diverse group of graduates and young professionals who are ambitious about making society better. They include engineers, journalists, tech entrepreneurs and social researchers.

Thembe studied Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Kent. Alongside her studies, she was actively involved in local and international voluntary groups which introduced her to social enterprise and innovation.

To read more about Thembe Mvula, go to the HIVE webpage.

Sent in by the HIVE.

If you are a Kent researcher (at any stage of your project or career) we invite you to an informal workshop on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 25 August.

This workshop is an opportunity for you to help us understand your needs as a researcher and how we can improve our online services for you. We want to make sure that the web content we provide to support your research activities is helpful, relevant, and joined up.

We are looking for 6-10 participants for both of our workshops.

Workshop Details:
Wednesday 17 August, 10:30-12:00, Templeman West, Room A108
Thursday 25 August, 11:00-12:30, Templeman West, Room A108
(Refreshments will be provided.)

If you would like to attend, please email us: is-publishing@kent.ac.uk

Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies, has just published a new book Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the Secular, and the Sacred (Oxford University Press, 2016).

The book provides a new take on established literature on the relationship between Christmas and religion, including a revisiting of the way such theorists as Emile Durkheim and Mircea Eliade have understood the location of the sacred-profane interface.

In the book, Chris argues that we need to move away from conventional binary language in order to develop a more sophisticated and realistic understanding of where religion can be encountered, and it draws on the category of Implicit Religion the notion that religion can be found in secular life to achieve this reconceptualization.

The work offers critical discussion of the relationship between Jesus and Santa where it is argued that it is their separation from one another which, paradoxically, makes them complementary figures who exist independently yet without conflict as no one (including Christians) has to choose between them.

Sent in by: secl@kent.ac.uk

Exactly a year ago today the Kent Enterprise Hub was relocated to the Canterbury Innovation Centre and rebranded as HIVE, Hub for Innovation and Enterprise. HIVE, as the institutional support for entrepreneurship, has continued to offer student enterprise activities on both the Canterbury and Medway campuses; and business support to students, alumni and staff looking to start-up their own businesses.

Through 2015-16 146 business advice sessions were held and over 166 students entered entrepreneurial competitions. Alongside this, the HIVE Start-Up Scheme has experienced multiple successes including:

Big Ideas competition
This year 64 students submitted applications and ‘elevator pitch’ videos for the University’s Big Ideas competition. A shortlisting panel of judges then met and selected six student groups/individuals to compete in the final round, where the students pitched their idea to a second panel of judges and answered a Q&A session.

The overall winners of the competition were: Ceseare Dunker, a first year Politics student; and Rayyan Sorefan, a first year Law student. Cesare and Rayyan presented their idea ‘eLog’; an app that allows users to track their journey from A to B. This is done through photographs, geo-tagging and time mapping. The app allows users to provide evidence of their journey to an institution-providing asylum.

Both Cesare and Rayyan will be going to Virginia, USA in August to test their idea against other entrepreneurial students from around the world.

IBM Universities Business Challenge
10 students were selected to form two teams to represent Kent in the IBM Universities Business Challenge. The teams met for two hours weekly and were mentored by the HIVE administrator through a series of simulated challenges.

The two student teams then attended the IBM Universities Business Challenge in London and the teams finished fifth and ninth in the semi-finals. Students feedback that the experience not only improved their entrepreneurial mind-sets but also added to their employability skills; and gave them more to talk about at interviews.

Start-up workshops
This year the University signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce to support HIVE. From this, the Chamber has carried out a series of business start-up workshops in the spring term. These workshops covered: Ideas generation; Sales and Marketing; Finance and Funding; Tax, insurance, and liability; and Creating a business plan.

Conferences
HIVE ran two conferences this year, supported by the Kent Opportunities Fund and Student Project Grant Scheme. The first was the Women in Enterprise Conference, held in November 2015; and the second was the App Development Conference, held in March 2016. Both conferences were well attended by students, staff and local businesses, having a lasting effect on the local entrepreneurial community.

‘Innovation and Enterprise will become more important for everybody in the University, from undergraduate students to senior staff. I am pleased that the Hub for Innovation and Enterprise has moved to the smart environment of the Canterbury Innovation Centre’.

Professor Philippe De Wilde
Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation

The Safeguarding Students Policy, approved by the Executive Group, is now available on the University’s Governance webpages. The policy outlines the University’s approach to safeguarding students within the University.

If you have a safeguarding concern, please read the policy carefully and contact the Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO) within your School or Department. A list of the University’s current DSOs can be found in the Policies section of the Student Services website (under Safeguarding).

Sent in by: jh836@kent.ac.uk

Acclaimed contemporary visual artist and School of Music and Fine Art Lecturer, Adam Chodzko is one of a group of 26 artists and estates selected by DACS Foundation to participate in the Art360 project; a hugely ambitious public project to support the sustainability and dynamism of artists profiles for future generations.

DACS Foundation promotes visual arts for the public benefit by making grants, providing education and training, organising exhibitions and carrying out vital research. Dedicated to the physical and intellectual preservation of the UK’s cultural heritage, making artistic works and archives accessible to today’s public and to future generations, the Foundation champions a new and encompassing perspective on the value of visual art and artists to society through public participation in education, exhibitions, publications and research opportunities.

The total £200,000 award made to artists includes direct investment in each of the artists with additional investment in the production of film interviews, directed by artist and filmmaker David Bickerstaff. Over the course of three years, the action research project will work with 100 modern and contemporary artists offering each artist or estate up to £6,000 investment in obtaining the best technical services and expert advice that is relevant to their circumstances and requirements to begin securing the material and ephemeral aspects of their legacy.

Chodzko says: ‘I am currently solely responsible for my own archive. I can’t delegate it to someone else because I need to be present for every aspect of its cataloguing in order to ensure the accuracy, relationships and significance of its parts through how they connect to the whole body of work.’

Chodzko’s art explores the interactions and possibilities of human behaviour. Exhibiting internationally since 1991, Chodzko works across media, from video installation to subtle interventions.

Sent in by: j.seaman@kent.ac.uk

Chris Morrison, Copyright and Licensing Compliance Officer at the University of Kent, has co-authored the second edition of Copyright and E-Learning: A guide for practitioners by Dr Jane Secker (Facet).

The book has been comprehensively updated following changes to UK copyright in 2014 and reflects the insights from Chris and Jane’s work on copyright literacy. This involves communicating messages about copyright in context and framing it as part of a set of wider digital and information literacies that are essential to teaching, learning and researching in the 21st century.

You can read more about the book here and the way in which an appreciation of risk and empathy can help alleviate some of the anxieties around copyright.

Chris also blogs about work he is doing to promote copyright literacy at Kent and invites anyone interested in this area to get in touch to join the Kent copyright community of practice.