The University is delighted to welcome Professor April McMahon as the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Education. She started her appointment on 1 September 2016.

April has had a distinguished academic career and is a Fellow of the British Academy. She has worked at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield as well as Edinburgh where she held the posts of Head of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science and Vice-Principal, Planning and Resources. She has just finished a five year term as Vice-Chancellor at Aberystwyth.

Professor John Baldock is continuing to lead on our application for the Teaching Excellence Framework which has to be submitted in December. He and April will work closely and ensure a smooth transition over the next few months.

Dr Sophia Labadi, Senior Lecturer in Heritage and Archaeology in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has had her recent research data and analysis on museums, migrants and social justice used in an article in the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information on language learning courses provided by the National Gallery of Denmark.

This article explains the importance and uniqueness of museums as a place for immigrants to learn the language of the host country. These analyses are part of a wider research project which assess programmes developed by museums to address cultural, economic, social and political inequalities facing immigrants. Programmes selected for this project relate to the representation of immigration and migrants in collections, as well as language learning courses and employment or volunteering opportunities. The research is based on in-depth case studies at the Manchester Museum and its partner Manchester Art Gallery in Britain, the National Gallery of Denmark and its partner Thorvaldsens Museum in Denmark, and the National Museum on the History of Immigration in Paris, France.

Some of the preliminary results of Dr Labadi’s research at the National Museum on the History of Immigration in Paris has already been quoted in an article on the museum published by CBC news in December 2015.

Read the full article in Dagbladet Information.

Sent in by secl@kent.ac.uk

Dr Paul March-Russell, Specialist Associate Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature, is to be a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction literature in 2017.

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is the most prestigious award for science fiction in Britain. The annual award was established in 1987, with a generous grant by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and is given for the best science fiction novel first published in the UK during the previous year. The winner is judged by a jury panel and selected from an initial shortlist of six eligible novels.

The panel of judges is made up of a voluntary body of distinguished writers, critics and fans with the panel line-up changing every year. The juries are drawn from such organisations as the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Sci-Fi London film festival.

Dr Paul March-Russell is the editor of Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, and general editor of SF Storyworlds (Gylphi Press). His latest book publication is Modernism and Science Fiction (Palgrave 2015).

Further details of the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

The fire alarm system at the Canterbury campus is now fully operational and the communication links between the affected buildings and Campus Security have been restored.

Thank you for your patience during this time.

Update at 10.07 on 31 August 2016.

Due to access control problems caused by a lightning strike, Postal Services staff have been unable to enter the Estates Post Room or their vehicles. Post deliveries and collections will be affected and it will not be possible to maintain normal schedules throughout the day.

All buildings should still receive at least one delivery/ collection during the day and outgoing mail should still be processed if it is received within reasonable time.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused. If you have any queries please phone extn 3267’.

Welcome back! If you’re returning to Kent after the summer break, here’s a helpful summary for settling back in.

• Timetables showing lecture times will be on the Student Guide during the week starting Monday 12 September. Continue to go back to the Student Guide and check your timetable regularly for updates including other events. Read our Timetabling FAQs.
• You will need to register your return to the University on SDS from Tuesday 20 September so we know you’re definitely coming back.
• If you’ve got a new phone, tablet or laptop, get it Kent WiFi-ready before you come back to campus by running our WiFi setup tool.
• Living off campus is very different from living in University accommodation. Read our community webpages for information on bills, bins, neighbours and much more!
• New for 2016 – the brand new Student Hub will be opening in the Autumn Term. The converted old swimming pool will host a range of student events, serve a good choice of food including home-made pizzas and will be GK Unions’ new home.
• There’s also a new café opening in the Galvanising Shop at the Historic Dockyard Chatham. Open daily for breakfast and lunch during the week, the Galvanising Shop offers a choice of eat-in or grab-and-go food, along with wonderful coffee.
• Student PCs will look different as Windows 10 has been installed over the summer. Log in for the first time only will take up to five minutes.

Have a great 2016-17 at Kent!

The University’s popular In Conversation series returns this autumn with Sandi Toksvig first to join Gavin Esler on Tuesday 4 October.

What is the In Conversation series?
Hosted by Kent Chancellor Gavin Esler, In Conversation events comprise of a relaxed, informal discussion exploring the life and work of his special guest, concluding with audience questions and some pre-selected questions from social media. Make sure to join the conversation on Twitter beforehand using #GavinAsks.

Tickets
Tickets cost £5.00 (£4.00 for students and staff)

All proceeds go towards the Kent Opportunity Fund, which supports a broad range of scholarships, student projects to enhance extracurricular activities at Kent, and bursaries to support students experiencing financial hardship.

After each talk, there is a ticketed High Table Dinner. Tickets for dinner are £35.00 per person which includes a pre-dinner drinks reception and a three-course meal.

For further information on the up coming series, please view the In Conversation webpage as well as our archive, to watch the full recordings of previous events.

This year’s L&T Festival on 15 September will provide staff with an opportunity to discuss ways of engaging students with their learning. You will also find out the latest on projects and happenings at Medway, including University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University initiatives.

Programme will be available in September.

Visit the event web page.

Contact: cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk

The University of Kent is delighted to announce that its bid for an ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership as part of the South-east Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS) has been successful.

This award will enable SeNSS to offer fully-funded doctoral studentships each year for the next six years with the first cohort commencing their PhD research in October 2017.

Coordinated by the University of Essex under the directorship of Professor Shamit Saggar, Professor of Public Policy, the SeNSS  consortium comprises 10 institutions: City University London; University of East Anglia; University of Essex; Goldsmiths, University of London; University of Kent; University of Reading; Roehampton University; Royal Holloway, University of London; University of Surrey and University of Sussex.
Professor Saggar said following the ESRC’s announcement:

‘The ten universities in the SeNSS consortium have great strength and ambition in the social sciences, and the award of a Doctoral Training Partnership by the ESRC is recognition of our plans in developing doctoral training. Through our thirteen training pathways, advanced skills modules, cohort development, and engagement with research users and practitioners, we will deliver step change in the student experience. I am delighted to lead SeNSS in this exciting venture. My aim is to ensure that SeNSS quickly becomes a sought-after badge of academic and practical excellence.’

Professor Diane Houston, Dean of the Kent Graduate School said:

‘This successful outcome is a testament to the world-leading research and high-quality of social sciences research training conducted at Kent and across the wider SeNSS partnership. Kent will make a distinctive contribution to SeNSS across nine of the thirteen training pathways by providing considerable expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Kent has been working effectively with seven of the SeNSS member institutions through existing doctoral collaborations over a number of years and we are confident that SeNSS will be similarly successful owing to our already excellent working relationships.’

A distinctive feature of SeNSS will be its cultivation of the impact of the social sciences, and engagement with research users. SeNSS will enable students to build strong relationships with both academic, user and practitioner networks at a number of different levels. Kent has an excellent track record of engaging successfully with a range of non-academic partners through CASE studentships (eg NHS, Age UK and Anne Frank Trust) impact and engagement activity and as a result of Kent student success in ESRC internship competitions (DCLG, BIS, BPS and Cabinet Office). The University will look to build on these relationships to strengthen the training opportunities provided to future SeNSS cohorts and use its alumni to promote the benefits of this type of collaboration.

Kent will be represented in the following SeNSS training pathways: (i) Social Anthropology, (ii) Social Work and Social Policy, (iii) Politics and International Relations, (iv) Science, Technology and Sustainability, (v) Linguistics, (vi) Psychology, (vii) Socio-Legal Studies, (viii) Business and Management Studies and (ix) Sociology.

From 2017 onwards, the ESRC will be funding 14 new Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and two Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). In total, 510 studentships will be available per year (494 through the DTPs and eight in each of the CDTs). 50 Postdoctoral Fellowships will also funded through the DTP Network. The value of studentship funding awarded to SeNSS will be confirmed by the ESRC in September.

View the ESRC announcement.