Updated at 9:45 on Monday 13 November 2023

The water supply issues at Canterbury campus are now fully resolved.

Thanks for your patience while the issues were fixed.

This week (6-10 November) is Talk Money Week. The aim is to encourage you to be more open about your finances with family and friends, as well as getting advice from experts if needed.

Blackbullion

We’re partnered with Blackbullion, a resource for students to improve their finances. Blackbullion has courses you can join and articles including how to build an emergency fund and top 10 money tips.

Help with budgeting

Your student maintenance loan only stretches so far and doesn’t always cover all the essentials. So, it’s important to make sure you’ll have enough money to see you through to your next instalment. Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert guru, has lots of advice and templates to help, check out here how to create a student budget.

As always, if you are experiencing financial hardship and budgeting just doesn’t cut it, please get in touch for financial support and advice.

Don’t get caught out

University students can be a target for criminals. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is:

• Money mules – recruiters may try to befriend you and ask you to transfer money between accounts for them, giving you a small cut for doing so. You may think you are doing someone a favour, but you could be transferring criminal money. If you get caught, you could get a criminal record. Find out more about money mules.
• Online scams – Protect yourself from online scams with these tips from Dr Jason Nurse of our award-winning Institute of Cyber Security Research Group.
• Be suspicious of unsolicited emails, texts or calls asking for personal information.
• Be cautious of messages that try enticing you into take some action (e.g. clicking a link or transferring some money).
• Be careful with what personal information you share online, using data from previous breaches fraudsters trick people into thinking it’s genuine.
• Use unique and strong passwords across online accounts – use a reputable password manager app to keep them secure.
• Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible and keep the software updated.

Additional resources and support around your finances

• Cyber security Moodle training for Kent students
• Cost of living support webpage
• Kent Union Advice Service
• Finance Team

With adverse weather expected over the next 24 hours, we want to let you know that our Canterbury and Medway campuses will be open as normal.

Given potential travel disruption, it may be that some activity is moved online due to staff unavailability – your Division will be in touch if there are any changes. Check your emails or get in touch before travelling if you want to make sure. Similarly, if you can’t make it to campus please let your Division know.

Please take care when coming in and check the latest travel advice before you make the trip. Useful sites include:

• Plan Your Journey
• Met Office
• Travel During Adverse Weather

If anything changes, we will update you first on our Instagram stories.

Canterbury for Ukraine (C4U) is running a series of events to mark Holodomor – or ‘the Great Famine’ – the Russian induced famine which killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s.

As the current conflict continues, the commemoration takes on special importance as Ukraine continues to defy Russian aggression and affirm its commitment to peace and freedom.

The events at the end of November will include the showing of a landmark film, Mr Jones, which tells the story of Gareth Jones, a Welsh journalist, who travels to Ukraine in 1933 and uncovers the truth behind the famine in Ukraine.

The award-winning 2019 film, starring Edward Norton, Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard, will be shown at the Gulbenkian on Thursday 23 November at 19:00. It has also been announced that students will be able to attend the screening free of charge thanks to a donation from Canterbury for Ukraine. To book your free student ticket, go to the Gulbenkian website. The ticket will show as £6 but once in the basket it will appear as £0 for students.

The commemoration will culminate in an inter-denominational service at All Saints Church, Military Road at 19:00 on Saturday 25 November. The service will bring together faith leaders, religious groups and many others from Canterbury and beyond to commemorate Holodomor but also to show solidarity with the more than 400 hundred Ukrainians who have settled in the area following the Russian invasion escalated in February 2022.

More than 6 million people have been forced to leave their homes as Russian forces have attacked major cities across Ukraine, including Berdyansk, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, and the capital Kyiv. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights verified 9,614 civilian deaths to September 2023, but the number of civilian casualties in the occupied territory is as yet unknown.

Canterbury for Ukraine was set up in March 2022 to welcome and support the growing number of Ukrainian families being displaced to Canterbury and the surrounding areas.

Run and supported by local volunteers, supporters and businesses from both the UK and Ukraine, C4U has grown rapidly to provide a wide range of high-quality and much-needed services including a Welcome Hub, a Youth Hub, English language classes, a club for older age Ukrainians “Young Hearts”, the Canterbury for Ukraine Facebook group, a Choir, as well as awareness raising, public engagement and social events.

The Holodomor commemoration activities are a part of C4U’s continuing work to promote Ukrainian culture, language, history and heritage.

For further information please go to the Canterbury for Ukraine (C4U) website.