Colleagues across the University continue to work to respond to the government’s plans to enable students to travel home safely before Christmas and to provide clarity for our students about how this will impact on them.

We are working to ensure those students who wish to travel during the ‘travel window’ of 3-9 December are able to do so. However, we are also very aware that this may not work for everyone, some will have travel arrangements already in place and others will have been planning to remain in their accommodation over the Christmas break. We need to make sure our students are able to decide what works and is the safest option for them and their families.

We have ‘expressed an interest’ in taking part in the national scheme for asymptomatic testing of our students and wait to hear back from the government. We are aware this scheme will be prioritised to those areas with a high incidence of coronavirus cases. We continue to work closely with our local public health team in terms of decisions we are making and on advice to staff and students at this time.

Against this backdrop of Covid-related activity, it is fantastic to hear about great work that continues to take place across the University in support of our core activity of education, research and engagement. I would like to congratulate three colleagues in the Department of Philosophy and School of Arts (Division of Arts and Humanities) who have been shortlisted across three categories in the 2020 Medical Humanities Awards.

Dr Jon Williamson, Professor of Reasoning, Inference and Scientific Method, has been shortlisted in the Best Research category for ‘Evaluating Evidence in Medicine’, an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project that aims to broaden the range of evidence considered by evidence-based medicine. Dr Michael Wilde, Lecturer in Philosophy, has been shortlisted in the Best Early Career Research category for ‘Improving evidence evaluation in medicine’. Michael’s research develops a theory of evidence to enhance the understanding of how causal claims are established in medicine. Dr Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor of Performance, has been shortlisted for the Leadership Award. Nicola has been at the forefront of new fields of research around creativity and neurodiversity, in particular, the projects ‘Imagining Autism’ and ‘Playing A/Part’. She has also demonstrated exceptional leadership of PhD students and early career researchers in the field.

The Medical Humanities Awards are a highly renowned collaboration between the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Wellcome Trust and it testifies to Kent’s strength in the Medical Humanities that ours is the only institution to be shortlisted across three categories in this year’s awards.

My very best wishes to you and your families,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

As you will no doubt be aware, the Department for Education has announced its plans to bring students safely home for Christmas. The guidance, released earlier today, makes it clear that students are required to follow current national restrictions until 2 December, with 3-9 December being designated as the ‘Student Travel Window’ with staggered departure dates.  The Government also requires all teaching to be online from 9 December at the latest.

We are now looking at this guidance in detail to assess how it impacts on our existing plans for this term and will issue further updates over the next few days.

We will also continue to update our online guidance for staff and students in response to the latest guidance from the Government.

We have also written to students to let them know of our current position, and to remind them that they need to continue to comply with the current lockdown restrictions and to continue to attend face-to-face and online learning sessions until they hear otherwise.

Please be assured that the health and wellbeing of our students and staff remain our key priority and will inform all our decision-making in response to this latest guidance.

Thank you for your continuing support at this challenging time,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

The news at the weekend that we were entering into a second period of lockdown meant most of us have spent the week preparing for how we are going to manage it both at work and at home. Many of you have, once again, gone the extra mile to enable the University to respond to the current situation. My greatest thanks go to you for this continuing effort.

I also wanted to thank all those who have worked hard to support the delivery of O4S during this time. We have now reached a major milestone in this significant change programme with new structures in place across the organisation and a new leadership team now in place.

I know, at times, this has been challenging and it has taken a huge amount of effort to get to this point. However, I am confident that the changes we have made are the right ones and the Divisions will play a major part of our future success.

Our focus will now turn to supporting Divisions and wider teams as they come together, ensuring that they have what they need to work well together. This will take time and I know there is still a lot more we need to do – both to manage this ongoing transition period and continue to simplify how we work together.

Staff in the professional services still have a considerable amount of work to do as teams come together, and I would ask that colleagues are mindful of this, particularly over the next few weeks.

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to those colleagues who have left us under KVSS, and I know there are others who are due to leave shortly. Thank you for everything you have done to support the University, it is hugely appreciated and you will be greatly missed.

My very best wishes go to you and your families,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

As Black History Month reaches its third week, I am pleased to be able to welcome Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, who will give this year’s Annual Race Equality Lecture via Teams Live on Thursday this week. Please do join us if you can. Sir Hilary has a global reputation for his work on social justice and minority empowerment and his lecture, British Universities as Architects of Slavery and Violent Colonialism: Undoing the Harm, will be challenging and thought-provoking. My thanks go to members of the BAME Staff Network for organising this event.

We continue to work on improving the representation of progression and success of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff and students at our University and, earlier this year, signed up as a member of the Race Equality Charter. We know we have more to do and are currently finalising a programme of work which will underpin the changes that we need to make. We will update you on this shortly. My thanks to Professor Georgina Randsley de Moura for progressing this work.

You will no doubt be aware that, over recent weeks, cases of Covid-19 in a number of areas in the country have increased significantly and that, as a result, universities in these areas are having to introduce changes to their teaching arrangements.

Here at Kent, as our weekly summary of current confirmed cases show, on Monday we had 26 students who have reported as testing positive for Covid-19 and no members of staff. These figures represent an increase on previous weeks. However, these numbers remain comparatively low and the local health protection team have advised that we are taking all appropriate steps at this point.

However, we recognise there is no room for complacency and so we continue to prepare for any changes we may have to make to our own teaching arrangements if we are required to do so. These changes will be in line with the Government’s ‘four tiers of restriction’, which outlines specific changes that universities are expected to introduce if circumstances require it. We will continue to keep you informed.

My very best wishes go to you and your families,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced a new three-tier system to ‘simplify and standardise’ coronavirus lockdown across England.  The new system will see different parts of the country placed in one of three categories dependent on rates of infection.  At present, Canterbury and Medway are still seeing comparatively low rates, and at this point are in the lowest tier of restrictions. I would like to thank all staff and students in our community, who are all contributing to keeping each other safe by continuing to follow guidance on hand-washing, face coverings and keeping social distance. To date, the number of positive cases among our staff and students continues to be low.

We continue to operate in accordance with Government guidelines, combined with Health and Safety advice and support from the local Health Protection teams in Kent and Medway and to deliver a mix of face-to-face and online activities for our students. This approach, of course, varies from programme to programme, colleagues are keeping all of this activity under review and will make adjustments to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both staff and students. We have a range of support in place for both staff and students and will continue to respond to concerns as they arise.  As I mentioned last week, plans are being are being put in place across the University to enable us to respond to any changes we might be required to make in the delivery of our core activities. We will continue to update our Covid webpages on a regular basis.

This week the Government also announced that next year’s GCSEs and A/AS levels will be held three weeks later to help address the disruptions caused by Covid-19. A/AS level results will be on 24 August and we will now begin to look at what this might mean for our admissions processes.

With my greatest thanks for all the hard work that is taking place across the University at this challenging time.

My very best wishes go to you and your families.

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

I am absolutely delighted to be able to announce that we have now selected our first Signature Research Themes. These are Food Systems, Natural Resources & the Environment; Future Human; and Migration & Movement. All three have a powerful contemporary relevance, and between them they represent some of Kent’s principal strengths in interdisciplinary work; the synergies between our research and teaching; our links with business; and our regional, national and international engagement and partnerships.

I would like to thank all those who took part in the selection process as well as all those who submitted proposals. It was immensely gratifying to see such strong contenders and it was extremely difficult to make the final selection. The themes that were not successful on this occasion will be encouraged to continue their excellent work with a view to their becoming future Signature Research Themes. I would like to thank Dr Tim Hopthrow, Professor Dan Mulvihill and Professor Catherine Richardson, the academic leads for the Themes Task and Finish Group, as well as colleagues from the Office for Scholarly Communication, all of whom have worked tirelessly in support of this initiative.  We will continue keep you updated on the work of the Themes over the coming months. You can find out more here.

On a different note, COVID-19 continues to dominate much of our lives. The number of positive cases of COVID-19 remains very low among our staff and student populations at this point. However, we all know circumstances can change and both Academic Divisions and Professional Service Directorates are working hard to ensure we have robust plans in place to respond to range of scenarios. We have developed a care package to support students who are self-isolating and will ensure we make details available to parents as well as students as we know this is an area of considerable concern.

We also have a framework in place to support the health and wellbeing of all staff during this challenging time and will continue to work closely with our Staff and Trades Union Representatives to ensure we are responding to staff concerns as they arise.

The University’s ‘Gold Command Team’, which oversees our response in terms of teaching delivery, campus operations and student and staff health and wellbeing, is now meeting twice daily. We continue to work in line with Government guidance, and this week received further confirmation that there is a strong commitment to working with universities to enable students to return home at Christmas. We will continue update you on a regular basis and additional information can be found on our Covid webpages for staff and students.

With the greatest of thanks and my very best wishes to you and your families,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

Our first week of teaching – with lectures online, labs and some small group seminars face-to-face – is now well underway. This is a huge achievement, ensuring we can do our work in a safe way and being flexible in how we have to respond to a changing external context. I would like to express my appreciation for the hard work that continues to be undertaken by all staff across the University. I had the pleasure of seeing colleagues and students around the Canterbury campus this week and, in particular, at an ‘archaeological dig’ near Blean Church. It was great to hear direct from first years, and postgraduates, how they were experiencing their first few weeks at Kent, even if it was at a distance with face masks in situ!

Like most universities, we have a small number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 amongst students in University accommodation at Canterbury. The students are self-isolating in line with Public Health England guidelines and their close contacts are also self-isolating where necessary. We are providing all those affected with academic and wellbeing support and will continue to work closely with the public health bodies who are advising us at this time. The Covid-19 testing centre remains operational on site for staff, students and members of the wider community.

You do not need me to tell you that we are all in a dynamic situation. We will continue to review and adapt how we are working in response to changes in Government policy and our local environment. One thing is clear; we are going to have to live with the uncertainties arising from coronavirus for the foreseeable future. Our Covid response planning continues and we are working hard to ensure we are able to address the challenges in terms of teaching delivery, campus operations and student and staff health and wellbeing we are likely to face over the next few months. We will continue to keep updated.

With thanks and best wishes to you and your families,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

The start of this new academic year is like no other, and more than ever we need to be conscious of our place and role in the communities in which we work, live and study.

Over the last few months, many of our staff and students have worked hard to support the fight against Covid-19. Some contributed through their research or through the production of essential PPE. Others, including those students who remained living locally, were on the frontline of support for the nation as healthcare workers, delivery drivers, supermarket staff or as volunteers in the community helping those who were shielding. I cannot thank you all enough for your efforts and I am particularly proud of the work done by our students.

As new and returning students join our community, Rama Thirunamachandran, the Vice-Chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University, and I have written a joint letter to the local press and residents’ associations to stress our ongoing commitment to responding to Covid-19 and keeping our communities safe. Both universities have introduced specific measures in support of our pledge, including starting our Street Marshal scheme earlier than usual to provide additional reassurance to students and to the wider community.

Here at Kent, we are running information campaigns to remind our students of their responsibilities in helping to reduce the transmission of the virus in our region and in acting as our ambassadors in the areas in which they live. We will let them know of any changes to government guidance and legislation as well bringing to their attention our Code of Conduct and Student Disciplinary Procedures.

We are also working with local public health authorities to support the NHS Test and Trace, including hosting local testing sites on our Canterbury and Medway campuses for students, staff and the local community. This is a key part of the strategy of early identification of cases, to enable the prevention of onward transmission.

As well as the public health authorities, we are working with the NHS, and regional and national government to ensure we have appropriate safety measures, guidance and regulations in place across our universities. We will continue to work with other community partners through the HE/FE Community (strategic) Group, which includes representatives from local authorities, the Police and landlords. We will also continue to liaise with our local residents’ associations on a regular basis to ensure we understand their concerns and respond appropriately.  Both Rama and I are confident that the steps we are taking will support the health and wellbeing of our student, staff and local communities as we continue to work together to minimise the impact of Covid-19.

I hope you and your families are keeping well and I wish you an enjoyable start to the beginning of term.

Yours sincerely,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

As I mentioned in last week’s email, we are cautiously optimistic with regard to our undergraduate numbers and I am truly grateful to all those who continue to work tirelessly in our schools and professional services departments to ensure we achieve the best possible outcome.

This has been a Clearing like no other. The uncertainties surrounding the impact of Covid-19 on students’ decision-making was compounded by last week’s change in government policy in the grading of A-levels and BTECs.

From the outset, we have had to change and adapt and then change and adapt again. Given the current situation, we took the decision to run our Clearing in the virtual world. The aim of this was to mitigate against any local lockdown and coronavirus outbreaks on campus, and to combat the very tricky process of trying to run the operation with social distance measures in place. This took an immense amount of planning and a cast of many, and the smoothness of that operation has been remarkable.

Our Clearing campaign, which we relaunched following the government’s announcement, has performed extremely well across a range of platforms including Facebook, Twitter and even TikTok. Content that shows off the campuses, whether through drone footage or campus tours, has done very well and was accompanied by a message highlighting the amount of space we have for our students.

To date, our Clearing hotline has received over 7,710 calls, which is 18.5% higher than we received last year. Yesterday alone, the teams handled over 400 calls. This week, we are holding a series of socially distanced campus tours, which allow small groups of students and their families to experience the campus for themselves.

We are all too aware that students have had to cope with an ever-changing landscape and a level of uncertainty that would throw the best of us, and I thank you all for the help and compassion you have continued to show them despite the hard work and pressures you all face.

With all good wishes,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

We have reached the time of year when most of us normally have the chance to draw breath. However, this has been an extraordinary time for the University and I wanted to acknowledge that I am aware of the impact that all the change we are going through is having on you as individuals. I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done this year, particularly in recent months as we navigate our way back to some form of normality as lockdown eases. Your support in this, and in the measures we have taken to mitigate against the financial impact of Covid-19, has been invaluable.

Now that the consultation process has begun in areas going through changes under Organising for Success this summer, I also wanted to acknowledge the impact that this will be having on many colleagues both centrally and across our new academic divisions. There is no doubt that this is a challenging time and, more than ever, we need to support each other and work together through this period.

I end with my very best wishes for the summer, I do hope that you manage to have something of a break with family and friends and are able to re-charge your batteries for the new year.

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President