As some of you will know, we are working at the moment on plans to bring all University of Kent activity on the Pembroke Campus into the Medway Building. This follows discussions with our university partners on the campus on how we can make best use of the space and should hopefully help bring more activity to our area of the site.

The move is currently scheduled to start following the end of this term, with most work taking place outside of term time. Your exams will be programmed into the Medway building. However, Journalism exams will take place in the existing newsrooms on the first and second floor of the Gillingham Building.

The Gillingham Building’s third and fourth floors will not be available from the start of the Easter vacation, and staff based on these floors will move to join colleagues on the second floor.

For all students returning in September, your future timetables will confirm where your classes will take place and from this time all staff will be based in the Medway Building, with specialist equipment and facilities incorporated into the new space as required.

Help us shape the new Oasis Lounge

As part of this we will also be recreating the Oasis Lounge in the Medway Building over the Easter vacation so that you still have a dedicated social space. Initially this will be transferred over more or less as is – however, over the summer we want to work with you on how we can improve it.

We’ll share more details on this in a few months but in the meantime do let us know your thoughts on what we could do with the space in the future by emailing csespaceplanning@kent.ac.uk

Thanks all – and do get in touch with me or one of your tutors if you have any further questions on this.

Helen Holland
Assistant Director Estates Planning

From the 07:35 service on Monday 11 March 2024, there will be a slight timetable change to the Canterbury to Medway Campus Shuttle service.

The expected arrival times at the Pier Quays and Historic Dockyard stops on the Canterbury to Medway service will now be 5 minutes earlier. See the updated timetable. (Make sure you click the hyperlink ‘view new timetable’ in the black box at the top!)

Why is this change being made?

Based on tracking data and driver feedback, there is excessive time allocated between Canterbury Campus and Pier Quays, leading to the bus frequently waiting at the Piers Quay stop.

To reduce waiting time and enhance service efficiency, 5 minutes will be deducted from the scheduled journey between Canterbury and Pier Quays.

How to get in touch

You can follow @CampusShuttle on X (formerly Twitter) for service updates. However, if you have any questions or feedback you will need to contact the 24/7 Customer Care Team 0330 808 3306 or email csteam@zeelo.co

Join this year’s WorldFest celebrations taking place from 4 – 15 March 2024.

WorldFest aims to showcase the cultural diversity, talents and knowledge of our students and staff and builds on from Cultural Celebration Week in the Autumn term.

There are a range of events, activities and classes across the university for you to get involved with, including:

• Go along to Rutherford Dining Hall to try a different WorldFest dish each day, chosen by our student Global Officers.
• Sign up for a cooking class to make pizzas or katsu curry. Places are limited.
• Join a cultural food talk from our World Language Tutors to find out more about the traditions, history and relationship of Katsu, Noodles and Falafels to Japanese, Chinese and Arabic cultures.
• Come along to our free language taster sessions in Japanese, Arabic,  German, Spanish, Italian and French. At the sessions you can also learn about adding a Year in Languages to your degree next year and other options available to you to develop your language skills.
• Step into Ukrainian culture at our English Speaking Club with our Ukrainian twin, Kherson State University. These run online every Tuesday throughout term time.
• Get your passport and travel around the world exploring various cultures at our Global Hangout on Monday 11 March, 14:00-17:00. Join in with various games and activities to earn ‘stamps’ in your passport for prizes.
• Get a team together and join in with our World Quiz night which aims to be a fun evening to test your worldly knowledge.
• ResLife are putting on some creative craft events including Origami and Chinese Scroll Painting.
• If you are looking to find out how you could spend your summer break abroad, either through summer schools, internships or volunteering opportunities, come along to our Go Abroad Bitesize talk on Thursday 14 March to find out how you can apply for funding to support you.

If all the above has inspired you to put on your own event to share your culture or celebrate a multi-cultural event, then you can apply to our WorldFest Bitesize Fund.

As part of our WorldFest celebrations, we also asked Kent staff and students to share with us their recommended reads, either from their favourite international author, or a book which teaches us something about other cultures.

Share your photos from WorldFest and follow us #WorldFest24

Canterbury for Ukraine (C4U) and Ukrainian Society of Kent (UsoK) are running events on Saturday 24 February to commemorate the second anniversary of the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

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.

Events include:

• Information stand on Canterbury Highstreet (near the Beaney Library) from 12:00-16:30
• Walk through Canterbury with displaced Ukrainians and supporters to remember and honour those affected by the war. Meeting place is the Beaney Library at 16:15 and will finish at 17:00 by the Marlowe Theatre.
• Public talk ‘War on Ukraine: Unbreakable People’ at The Friends Meeting House at 17:15. The talk will feature distinguished speakers, including:
  • Yevhen Hlibovytsky, a public figure and director of Frontier Institute, a strategic think tank for Ukraine
  • Baroness Alison Suttie, a Member of the House of Lords since October 2013, the Patron of Canterbury for Ukraine
  • Maryna Poltavska, an officer of Canterbury City Council and a beneficiary of the Home for Ukraine scheme.

    The discussion will be moderated by Sir Julian Brazier, a former Member of Parliament for Canterbury. The panel discussion will be followed by the Q&A and light refreshments.

For further information see the Canterbury for Ukraine website.

After weeks of renovations at The Deep End, the new coffee bar at Medway, Poolside Coffee, is now open for you to enjoy hot drinks and breakfast from 9:00 on weekdays.

View the Poolside Coffee menu (pdf) 

Over the last few weeks we have been making improvements to notifications in our Uni Kent Student App.

If you are using the app, please make sure it is updated to version 6.0.36 on iOS and 6.0.34 on Android. You will need to open the app for the update to fully complete.

When will you send me notifications?

If you opt in to notifications, we will only send you notifications once a week to highlight important reminders, events, opportunities and deadlines for that week. This is in the form of our weekly round-up. In some cases, we may send an additional notification in a week for a really important message that is for all students.

If you would like to receive notifications, please make sure you have turned these on in the app.

Find out more about the app and how to give feedback.