More than 4,000 students graduated at degree congregation ceremonies in Canterbury and Rochester between 10 and 18 July.

The ceremonies give staff, guests and friends of the University a chance to come together to celebrate the achievements of the graduating class. Free YouTube live streams of the ceremonies were available for the first time, for guests who couldn’t make it on the day; the streams have been viewed over 35,000 times.

Recipients of honorary degrees include former boxing champion Barry McGuigan MBE, comedians Phill Jupitus and Mark Steel and Kent alumna, Lisa Madigan, the senior-most female Attorney General in the US.

Our former Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, attended her last ceremony in Canterbury on Friday 14 July. In celebration of her time at Kent, students and staff attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the most mortar boards thrown simultaneously.

Special thanks goes to the Congregations team, Development Office staff, Campus Security and all the volunteers from across the University who make the ceremonies special for graduates and their guests.

Volunteers play a critical role and the team is grateful to everyone who gets involved. Stay tuned during the autumn term for a call for volunteers for the November ceremonies.

Thursday 17 August is A level results day. The volume of calls from potential students is expected to be exceptionally high. This may cause intermittent problems when ringing from the University on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 August. The switchboard is also likely to be very busy with related enquiries during the following week (21 – 25 August).

We appreciate your patience and co-operation during this time.

If you have any queries regarding this, please contact the Estates Helpdesk on ext 3209.

You are invited to take part in a PhD study involving non-invasive electronic measurement of swallowing and chewing. This study intends to collect data towards the development of automated identification of chewing and swallowing behaviours.

To do this we intend to measure muscle activity in the neck and face during a small meal. The session is expected to take no more than 90 minutes. You will be presented with £10 Amazon voucher to compensate you for your time.

If you are interested in taking part in this study, please register your interest in the following form: https://goo.gl/forms/GvtTL0a94GEivZW53

We are looking for individuals between 18 and 40 years of age who live in the Canterbury area, or are students or staff members at the University of Kent, to take part in data collection during a small meal. The study is open to individuals with no known allergies or dietary restrictions to food items listed below (specifically gluten and dairy products).

If you are eligible to take part in this study you will be required to visit Jennison Building at the Canterbury campus during which small sensors will be placed to your throat and face. You will be asked to perform a number of tasks (including reading aloud and carrying out head motion), and then to consume a meal. This will consist of: apple, plain cheese pizza, jam sandwich, yoghurt and water. Food provided will contain gluten and dairy products.

Photo credit: Paul Wilkinson, https://www.flickr.com/photos/eepaul/9145407941 CC 2.0

Smartlife Inc, a Manchester based SME, has been awarded funding to embark on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project with The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences (SSES) at the University of Kent.

Smartlife are specialists in smart garment technology. The company was founded in 2010 and has developed innovative textile sensors, electronics and firmware capable of detecting the body’s biophysical signals delivering actionable insight to users via mobile apps.

Dr John Dickinson and Dr Sam Winter, from SSES, are looking forward to working with Smartlife, and with the soon-to- be appointed postgraduate, who will deliver the project. The two-year project, part-funded by Innovate UK, will enable Smartlife to create innovative wearable technology to identify healthy and pathological respiratory patterns. This unique functionality will grow not only their sports and fitness market share but facilitate expansion into new markets such as the health and wellbeing, medical and military markets.

Martin Ashby, CEO of Smartlife, said “we’re delighted to be working with such a well-respected academic institution and believe that our partnership will allow Smartlife to deliver insight to our customers that is at the cutting edge of current thinking on respiration”.

KTPs are a UK-wide Government programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK academic knowledge base.

Picture: Senior Management team at Smartlife Inc: Mark Pedley, Founder; Clare Simpson, Product Development Director; Martin Ashby, CEO.

From 1 September the University will be piloting changes to the Programme and Module approval processes.

The changes have been developed in partnership with key stakeholders and have been informed by consultation with representatives from across the University. The key changes are as follows:
– An enhanced business case stage, with support from central services, to help us be more confident of any new programmes we launch.
– A reduction in QA stages from three to two for new programmes, with programme leads present at PASC to help the process run more smoothly.
– An annual approval cycle which is easy to understand.

A full review of the pilot will be carried out in May 2018.

This staff guide explains the changes further.

In addition the pilot changes will be explained at two staff briefings in September.
– Tuesday 12 September, 14.00 – 16.00 – Medway (M1-22)

– Wednesday 20 September, 14.00 – 16.00 – Canterbury (GLT2)

To help with planning, please complete this Doodle Poll to indicate your intention to attend either briefing.

The pilot is being introduced as part of Simplifying Kent Project 1: Programme Approval and Curriculum Design, sponsored by Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Education and led by Dr Simon Kirchin, Dean of Humanities.

A second strand of the project is also underway. Throughout the spring and summer terms health checks have been carried out with schools and centres, looking at the University’s module and programme portfolio.

There are nine Simplifying Kent Projects in total, you can find out more about the projects on the Simplifying Kent SharePoint site.

Kent Law School Professor Davina Cooper, working with a team of colleagues, has secured a grant of £724,000 for a three-year study investigating and evaluating the regulation of gender status in the law of England and Wales.

Reforming Legal Gender Identity: A Socio-Legal Evaluation will use cutting edge social science research methods to investigate how gender status is defined and regulated for legal purposes. The project will also assess options for possible reform.

The grant was awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council; research will start in May 2018. Professor Cooper will lead a multi-disciplinary team of academics with expertise in law, social psychology, gender and political theory, including Flora Renz (City, University of London), Dr Emily Grabham (Kent Law School) and Professor Elizabeth Peel (Loughborough University).

Professor Cooper said: “We are particularly interested in the implications that follow from assigning gender as a legal status at birth. Should this be reformed? What are the benefits and challenges in doing so; and what kinds of reforms might best address different peoples needs and concerns? It is very exciting to have the opportunity to conduct this innovative research which has the potential to change how gender is understood and regulated.”

The research will take place over three years and will include legal analysis, surveys, and interviews with policy-makers, NGOs, lawyers, activists and a wider public. The project will benefit from an expert advisory board comprising key academics in the field, as well as other stakeholders. Findings from the ongoing research will be shared through an interactive website and presented at public events as the project unfolds. One project aim is to develop a draft bill to provide a focal point for discussion of legal reform. An academic book and several articles will also be published.

Student Records & Examinations and The Undergraduate Office – Humanities & Social Sciences have formally become the Central Student Administration Office.

This rebranding reflects structural changes made in the last year which has seen the formation of specialist teams to oversee the various strands of work the office undertakes, from day-to-day in-course administration to external reporting and data handling. It also brings us into line with our Medway colleagues (Medway Student Administration Office).

Central Student Administration includes the Registry Student Reception, Operations Team, Data Quality Team and Information Compliance. All teams report to Jayne Hornsby, Assistant Director, Central Student Administration.

Our contact details will change in line with our new identity, with sturec@kent.ac.uk student_records@kent.ac.uk and husgo@kent.ac.uk no longer in use after 1 August 2017.

Our new contact details are:

Email: csao@kent.ac.uk

Website: www.kent.ac.uk/csao
Twitter: @UniKent_CSAO
Tel: 01227 764000
Location: G1, The Registry Building

Please visit our new website for full information on our services.

Our specialist teams will continue to work as one to deliver large-scale events and activities, like arrivals registration and examinations, and will retain the specific contact details for these standalone activities:

exams@kent.ac.uk
gettingstarted@kent.ac.uk

We would appreciate your support to make your colleagues and students aware of our rebranding, and your patience in the transitional period. If you have any queries or require clarification about any of our services please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Footsteps Project was launched in 2014 as part of the University’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Almost 800 alumni, students, staff and members of the wider community have already made a gift to the project and had a personal message engraved on a brick and set in the Crab & Winkle Path alongside the Templeman Library.

Their donations have helped build the Kent Opportunity Fund, which supports scholarships, hardship bursaries and student projects. To date, the Footsteps Project has raised over £50,000, allowing the Kent Opportunity to increase the number of bursaries available for students experiencing financial hardship, and to allow two full postgraduate scholarships – the Alumni Postgraduate Research Scholarship – to be awarded each year to talented Kent graduates pursuing research degrees.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far – not only are you leaving a lasting legacy on campus, but you are supporting the next generation of students to walk in your footsteps. If you would like to be part of the next ‘wave’ of bricks (due to be installed in September) the deadline to make your gift is Monday 31 July.

To find out more about the Footsteps Project, please visit www.kent.ac.uk/footsteps or email giving@kent.ac.uk.