Wednesday 20 April saw the launch of the Shadow Matching Scheme intended to provide professional services staff with job shadowing opportunities across the University.

The pilot scheme works on the basis of a reciprocal arrangement over the course of three half-days between professional staff in academic schools and colleagues in central service departments. This will allow colleagues to break down some of the silos in which we too often operate and help them to better understand the work of other parts of the University, as well as provide them with a fresh look at their own professional practice.

The event on Wednesday 20 April was the first of these sessions:  all the matches were revealed and each pair was able to meet and start discussing their roles and what they were hoping to get from the reciprocal shadowing visits. The event was extremely successful with an impressive total of 76 people, across both academic schools and central services, having signed up for this pilot scheme.

The informal feedback we have received so far has been extremely positive. A more formal feedback gathering will take place in a couple of months – when most shadowing visits will have been completed – which will inform the way this scheme will be taken forward in the future.

This new scheme is part of the “Excellence through partnerships” enhancement theme of the ‘Excellence Initiative’, which the Academic Division has been running since 2012 for professional staff in the University’s schools and faculties   More information about this scheme and others is available on the Excellence Initiative website, the go-to place for all professional staff in schools to learn about the various projects which have been put in place under the Excellence Initiative since its launch.

If you have any question or suggestions about this scheme, please contact C.gallien@kent.ac.uk

The University has achieved a top 10 position in seven subject areas in the latest Complete University Guide (2017). This is up from four in 2016.

Kent has also achieved a top 20 position in 14 subject areas, up from 12 in 2016. Overall, the University has maintained its top level position with its 23rd place out of 127 UK universities.

The GLOBSEC 2016, a premier security forum for the policy-makers, analysts and practitioners across Europe and the world, has enjoyed a strong representation from the Kent students and staff this year.

For the 11^th consecutive year, the GLOBSEC in Bratislava (Slovakia) has been contributing to shaping the regional, European and wider transatlantic foreign and security policy agenda.

Over the years, its key-note speakers have included David Cameron, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Donald Tusk, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, John Allen, John McCain, Carl Bildt, Ahmed Rashid, George Friedman and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.

The GLOBSEC 2016 forum hosted the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen as its key-note speakers, and focused on the challenges of migration, the on-going threat of the Islamic State, the role of NATO in European security, BREXIT and European relations with Russia.

Uniquely, the University of Kent enjoyed a very strong presence this year at the Global Security Forum. The School of Politics and International Relations was represented by Professor Elena Korosteleva (Politics), a member of the GLOBSEC International Advisory Board, Professor Richard Whitman who spoke at the GLOBSEC Young Leaders’ Forum about Brexit, and Giles Polglase to represent the  School of Engineering and Digital Arts on the issues of biometric and cyber security.

The forum also received support from a group of Kent students including Igor Merheim-Eyre (POLIR PhD student) assisting the Forum with the outcome summary and social media, Simona Majernikova (POLIR 2^nd year student) and Dominik Dubovsky (School of Anthropology) who, through a fierce international competition, were selected to assist the GLOBSEC media team.

The Samuel Beckett and World Literature conference – funded by the Centre for Modern European Literature, Faculty of Humanities, and departments across SECL and the School of English – takes place at the University’s Canterbury campus on 4-5 May 2016.

Keynote speakers are Professor Stanley Gontarski from Florida State University and Professor Fabio de Souza Andrade from Universidade de São Paulo. There will also be a screening of Ashish Avikunthak’s feature film Kalkimanthankatha, inspired by Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, followed by a discussion with the Indian cinematographer at the Gulbenkian Cinema.

Please visit the Conference blog for further details and the full programme, which includes an exciting line-up of panels.

For any queries, please email: beckettworldlit@kent.ac.uk.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

SBWL Conference Organisers

Local heroes from across the region took centre-stage at the Pride in Medway awards, co-sponsored by the University.

Overall winner was Anita Marinelli who has raised almost £600,000 for the Ruby Young Appeal. Ruby was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive childhood cancer, just before her second birthday.

Family friend Anita organised an appeal to raise money for Ruby’s treatment in America. The campaign was supported by local people as well as celebrities including Louis Tomlinson from One Direction and England fly-half Danny Cipriani.

Anita was crowned winner at the annual awards event, now in its 15th year, at a gala finalist ceremony on 9 April in the Pilkington Building, Medway campus. The ceremony was hosted by ITV Meridian’s Sangeeta Bharbra and children’s TV presenter Phil Gallagher.

More than 30 unsung heroes picked up awards at the event, which is aimed at rewarding people who go above and beyond the call of duty in their everyday lives. Each of the sponsors – including the University, Medway Council, mhs homes, the Medway Messenger, Uniper and Southeastern – gave a prize to their chosen winner before the overall victor was announced.

This year’s University winner was Amy Harwood who, aged 13, was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, a disease causing hair loss. She was nominated by her mum for being ‘incredibly brave’ in coping with the condition.

Over the past two years, Amy has worked tirelessly for the alopecia charity AAR-UK, raising almost £10,000 to try and find a cure. She has also enrolled with a multi-talent agency in London and will feature in a Channel 4 documentary on Alopecia this summer.

Amy’s award was presented on the night by Jane Glew, the University’s College Master for Medway, who said: ‘This amazing and beautiful young lady has refused to let Alopecia stand in the way of what she has wanted to achieve and is helping other young people with Alopecia to pursue their dreams with confidence.’

Other finalists at the Pride in Medway ceremony were toddler Harry Thumwood who, while in hospital in Medway, donated his Peppa Pig collection to the hospital playroom, a team of volunteers who share basic cookery skills with other young people at Woodlands Youth Centre, and William Thomas, Medway’s oldest lollipop man until his recent retirement.

For further information, see the Pride in Medway webpages.

The University of Kent Players are looking for people to join them, either on stage or back stage, in their next production – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

This well-loved novel has been adapted for the stage by Leila Sangtabi, Marketing and Events Coordinator in the School of Arts. Leila said: ‘Pride and Prejudice is a timeless classic and as 2017 will be the 200^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, it was a great opportunity to put her most famous story on stage.’

Auditions take place in May, with the production taking to the Gulbenkian stage 13-15 October 2016. If you are interested in being involved in this production in any way, please email players@kent.ac.uk for further information.

A new £35 million building to house the schools of business and mathematics at the University has moved a step nearer completion with its topping out ceremony.

University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Denise Everitt joined Richard Poulter, Deputy Managing Director of contractors Willmott Dixon, on 20 April to perform the ancient ceremony to mark the building reaching its highest point.

The development, to house Kent Business School and the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, is the single biggest building ever built by the University.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor said it would ‘offer students an excellent learning experience and staff a fit-for-purpose home for research activities’.

Willmott Dixon expect to complete the building in November, with the University aiming to begin using it early in 2017. It will provide 7,900 sq m of new academic space, include three lecture theatres, numerous seminar rooms, social learning spaces, a café, breakout spaces and a staff terrace. Designed by architects Penoyre and Prasad, the distinctive ‘W’ shape presents an impressive visual impact and the design makes the most of its woodland setting.

This development follows on from the recent completion of the new West Wing of the Templeman Library, marking the end of the first phase of its £40m redevelopment. The Wing provides 4,000 sq m of flexible space, including an exhibition gallery, seminar rooms and 250-seat lecture theatre. Work has now begun on Phase 2 of the project to reconfigure the central area of the existing building, followed by a final phase to redevelop the upper area

Ground-breaking research across the University has been celebrated at a presentation of Kent’s annual Research Prizes.

Twelve prizes were presented for exceptional achievements over the past year – from publications in top-ranked journals to high citation rates, significant funding awards and impact through public engagement and policy development.

The prizes were presented by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation Professor Philippe De Wilde during a gala dinner in Darwin Conference Centre on 1 April. Guests at the ceremony, compered by Professor of Genetics Darren Griffin, included Deans, Heads of School, nominators and the winners themselves.

The Research Prizes scheme has generated considerable interest across the University since its launch in 2014. This year, more than 35 applications from 15 of the University’s Schools were received.

Professor De Wilde said that the Prizes ‘act as a showcase for the extraordinary range of ground-breaking research that is being undertaken across the University. The applications this year highlighted the diversity of research and the impressive achievements by Kent academics and students.’

Overall research prizes this year included:

• The University Prize for Research – awarded to Dr Heather Ferguson (School of Psychology), in recognition of ‘going far beyond the expectation of those still establishing their careers’ and attracting over £1.6m external research funding.
• The University Prize for Early Career Research – Dr Ben Goult (School of Biosciences) for achievements including a prestigious BBSRC New Investigator Award and patent for a new tool to study pharmo-mechanobiology.
• The University Prize for Postgraduate Research – Eske van Gils (School of Politics and International Relations), in recognition of her external policy engagement and involvement in internal initiatives such as membership for the Global Europe Centre.

Further details of all the prize-winners are available on the Research webpages.