UKC Women’s Campaign and Kent Union have organised a march on  27 November 2017 to show solidarity and support for rape and sexual assault survivors.

Everyone is welcome to come and march with us, regardless of personal experiences.

The march will begin at Westgate Hall, at 17.00, with hot drinks and food and mingling and start marching at 18.00 from the hall, up the high street, loop back round and finish at the Marlowe Theatre steps where we shall take pictures and say our thanks and mingle/go our separate ways.

Find out more on the Facebook event.

This autumn, Kent alumni in the United States and the United Kingdom are getting together to make a difference in their local communities, as part of Kent Gives Back. We would like thank all of those Kent alumni participating in this series of Kent Gives Back projects.

The Boston alumni team volunteered at The Community Servings Kitchen as a part of the Kent Gives Back Project on Friday 27 October. The team created meals for individuals unable to shop or cook for themselves due to critical illness.

Six University of Kent alumni in Washington, DC volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House where they cooked a lovely meal for 22 children at the home. Eliot Williamson, chair of the UKA Washington, DC chapter, commented on the event:

‘The event was a huge success. The group enjoyed the activity tremendously. Also, many of the parents thanked us. They were very happy we cooked such a good meal.’

On 11 November, 10 Kent alumni from Chicago volunteered at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. They made individual and family-sized food packages to be distributed across Chicago. One of the volunteers commented: ‘What a rewarding afternoon on this Veterans’ Day/Remembrance Day. We learned that over 16,000 veterans in Cook County live below the poverty line and 18% of households who receive assistance from the Food Depository include someone who served in the U.S. Armed Forces.’

Alumni in Los Angeles are looking forward to volunteering at the LA Regional Food Bank on Saturday 9 December and the next series of Kent Gives Back in the US will take place in May 2018, and involve alumni groups around the world.

Contact us at alumni@kent.ac.uk to offer suggestions or find out more about this fantastic initiative.

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning & Teaching Network session taking place on Wednesday 22 November, 13.15-14.30 in CNWSR6.

Ben Watson, Accessible Information Project Adviser will present this session titled ‘How to take a KIP at work – and not get into trouble’

Kent Inclusive Practices (KIPs) offers simple but powerful mainstream adjustments to learning and teaching delivery at Kent and are informed by analysis of our most frequently requested Inclusive Learning Plan (ILP) adjustments. Embedding these adjustments will improve the learning environment for all students, reduce the need for retrospective adjustments and lessen the additional workload required to implement individual Inclusive Learning Plans (ILPs).

The session will look at inclusive design principles and identify how everyone in an academic school or professional services department can play their part in developing learning experiences that are accessible by design to everyone.

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

Event and Experience Design (EED) graduate Elise Berdah from the School of Music and Fine Art has been commissioned by Clara Lee, Vice President (Welfare) of Kent Union to re-make her EED Independent Realised Project.

‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ is a touring awareness raising experience of sexual harassment, particularly in the university environment. It was originally presented in the Drill Hall Library during the Student Wellbeing Festival last May. Watch the project video for more information.

It will be presented again in the Student Hub at Medway from 20 – 26 November, and from 27 November – 3 December in Canterbury. It may tour to other universities and colleges. Watch Elise speaking about her project.

The KentVision Programme has launched a new SharePoint site and we would like to invite you to visit the site to find out more about the Programme.

The University is going through a major business change programme in implementing a new student management system for the 2018-19 academic year. The new site is being launched to provide a resource for you as stakeholders.

There is information about the Programme, what we’re doing and the areas we’re working in, including a range of FAQ’s that could have the answers you’re looking for (but if not, we look forward to hearing from you!).

And it’s not just somewhere for a one off visit, we will be providing updates and adding more content all the time – it’ll be worth you coming back! We’ll keep in touch to let you know the best times to visit again.

Email: KentVision@kent.ac.uk

STOP PRESS!

KentVision Open Forum to be held in December. All Staff welcome – come along to find out more about KentVision, what we’re doing and what it means for you.

• Canterbury – Wednesday 13^th December, 2.30pm
• Medway – Thursday 14^th December, 2.30pm

 Room information and more to follow soon.

Your UKM Student for 2017/18 is final year Journalism student Elaine.

Elaine will be providing updates on all things happening at Medway on her Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can also ask her any questions you have about student life at Medway.

Follow her now on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

A mini-symposium on the theme of ‘Life after Death/Destiny’, with input from members of five World Faiths, will take place on Monday 6 November from 18.00-19.00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 5.

It will be followed by a vegetarian buffet provided by Kent Hospitality and funded by the University Chaplaincy.

Leaders of student faith groups and societies will also showcase some forthcoming events.

From 8 -13 December, BA (Hons) Fine Art 3rd year students will again be holding their annual interim show in the historic Chatham House on Rochester high-street.

The building, a Georgian brewery in the process of being restored, offers a series of extraordinary spaces over three floors, some undisturbed for decades. They include an intact 18th century wine cellar, a family chapel and grand formal staircase.

Working with the project manager, students apply their practice to propose, create and install work in response to the unique environment of the building, with work ranging from performance, sound and projection to installation and painting.

Last year’s show attracted over 200 visitors to the private view alone and grants 3rd year students a valuable opportunity to take their work into the ‘real’ world beyond their studios.

Working as a group, students curate, manage the budget and publicise the show gaining experience of a public audience and of working together in preparation for their final exhibition and degree show in May.

This year’s show opens on Friday 8 December running until Wednesday 13 December, 11.00-16.00, and is open to the public.

Venue: Chatham House, High Street, Rochester, Kent ME1 1DA

Colleagues are invited to attend the next session of the ‘New Approaches to Teaching for Experienced Staff at Kent’ taking place on Tuesday 7 November, 12.55-14.00 in the UELT Seminar Room.

Presented by Chloe Street Tarbatt, School of Architecture and winner of the Humanities Faculty Teaching Prize 2017.

This session will focus on the use of Live Projects in our undergraduate architecture curriculum, and the educational benefits and challenges engendered in this approach.

Connecting the briefs for our design modules to Live Projects (to real clients pursuing an architectural agenda) has enormous benefits for both the communities served, and for the students educational experience.

The process forges and enhances links between academia and society, supporting both the RIBA’s and the more recent TEF’s objectives. However, it is apparent from the feedback received through module evaluations and focus group meetings, that the students often find the complexities of this real-world situation very challenging.

On this basis, new strategies are being developed to enhance our student’s understanding of the educational opportunities afforded by this approach by raising awareness of the important dialogic learning that can take place through immersion in communities of practice, and through embedding reflective practice into our teaching and assessment processes.

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