With your Kent email address, you can benefit from free upgrades to a wide range of FutureLearn courses.

As a Kent student or staff member, all you need to do is connect your University email address with your FutureLearn account using this FutureLearn Campus link and verify your email address. You don’t need to already have a FutureLearn account.

This is a great resource for staff and students wishing to supplement their studies, professional and personal development too. There are a wide range of courses available under this offer, including courses created by the University of Kent and other institutions. On completion, you will receive a free certificate of achievement and perpetual access.

At present, this offer is available until the end of December 2020.

Do you communicate with the media in your role?

Colleagues who would like to learn about working with the media are invited to enrol on  Why The Media Matters, a series of short films, audio, text and scenarios covering topics from understanding the media landscape to how best to respond to journalist requests.

Produced by Inside Edge, the University’s media training partner, Why The Media Matters is intended to be an introduction to the benefits and importance of media engagement.

The training is available for all staff but recommended for anyone who has to communicate with the media as part of their role and the resources can be found by clicking this Staff Training Moodle link and reviewing the Personal Effectiveness category.

For further information or to discuss any aspect of media training or engagement, please contact Gary Hughes, the University’s Head of Press relations.

Professor Yong Yan from the University’s School of Engineering and Digital Arts has received the highest accolade in the field of instrumentation and measurement with a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Yong Yan was one of 50 engineers admitted to the Royal Academy of Engineering at its annual meeting on 22 September. He was recognised for his “distinctive contribution to improving combustion efficiency and lowering emissions through innovation in electronic instrumentation and successful development of novel instruments, thereby making an important impact on the power industry nationally and internationally”.

Commenting on the Fellowship, Yong said: ‘I am very honoured and extremely privileged to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, one of the most prestigious engineering institutions in the world.’

He added: ‘The Fellowship is only awarded to an engineer who has made exceptional contributions in any field of engineering. It will enable me to perform at a higher level in my research and teaching with a range of support and services from the Academy. The recognition will also help me promote the importance of measurement science and engineering to the UK and the wider world.’

Yong is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). He was recently awarded the gold medal as the most published author of all time in the UK from the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, a leading journal in the field of electrical and electronic engineering. He has published more than 470 papers in international journals and conference proceedings.

Early career

Yong studied for BEng and MSc degrees at Tsinghua University, Beijing, before coming to the UK in 1989 to study for a PhD degree at Teesside. He joined the University of Kent in Canterbury in 2004 from the University of Greenwich (Medway Campus).

‘I joined Kent,’ he said, ‘because it has the best research facility and support in my area of research, including a well-equipped instrumentation laboratory and technical support for applied engineering research.’

Role at Kent

As Professor of Electronic Instrumentation in the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, Professor Yan contributes to teaching, research and administration. He was the School Director of Research from 2008 to 2018. Since 2018, he has been the School Director of Innovation, playing a leading role in promotion of engineering innovation and collaborations with industry, as well as managing the Year in Industry modules. Professor Yan also heads the Instrumentation and Control Research Group, including coordination of our REF submission in this area.

A webinar on ‘Subnational Governments in the COVID-19 Scenario in the Americas’ takes place on Monday 21 September from 14.00 (UK time).

The webinar is organised by School of Politics and International Relations, the Conflict Analysis Research Centre (CARC), the Forum of Federations and the Organisation of American States (OAS).

You can watch it live on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoXLBorRKps or https://www.youtube.com/user/forumoffederations

The webinar will include welcome remarks from:
• Rupak Chattopadhyay, President & CEO, Forum of Federations
• Magdalena Talamas, Director of the Department for the Promotion of Peace, OAS
• Neophytos Loizides, Director of the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, University of Kent

Panelists include:
• Matias Bianchi, Executive Director, Asuntos del Sur
• Juan Cruz Olmeda, Associate Professor, Centre for International Studies , El Colegio de Mexico
• Joy St John, Executive Director, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA)
• Isaac Alfie, Director of the Office of Planning and Budget of Uruguay and Head of the Covid- 19 Presidential Technical Advisory Committee
• Nathalie Behnke, Professor, Institute of Political Science of the Technical University Darmstadt
• Andreas Kiefer, Acting Secretary General, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

The webinar is open to all and free to attend with no booking necessary. Feel free to pass on the details to anyone that might be interested.

Picture shows: Professor Neophytos Loizides, Director of the Conflict Analysis Research Centre at the University of Kent.

Welcome back to the staff who have returned to work on campus. If you would prefer to work back on campus, you will need to discuss your plans and circumstances with your line manager as part of the health and safety protocols now in place.

We know increasing numbers of staff are now seeking to work from campus, but we ask that you do comply with these essential protocols. However, we want to make it as easy as possible for you and we will be sending out new information for staff and managers to explain the return to campus procedures later this week.   

The Government has published new guidance concerning meeting others. The new ‘rule of 6’ states that you can meet up to 6 other people indoors or outdoors providing you socially distance from each other. This means staying 2 metres apart where possible. Please adhere to the ‘rule of 6’ when engaging socially with others; for example during breaks, lunchtime and walking around campus.   

There are some exemptions for University settings including seminars and households which include more than 6 individuals. This may be the case for some student residences. Further information can be found in the newly added FAQs on the Student Coronavirus webpages and Staff Coronavirus webpages (Safety on Campus section) .   

A new FAQ has also been added to the Staff Coronavirus webpages concerning room bookings on campus (in the What Will Happen on Your Return section). This confirms the process for booking a room and that all interviews should be carried out remotely until Government guidance changes. 

Our Covid-19 Programme Board, now chaired by Sinead Critchley, Director of Governance and Assurance at the University, continues to plan for a safe return to campus for us all.

Among latest updates from the Board’s weekly meetings are:

Health and Safety

Face coverings should be worn in transit areas of buildings, entrances, exits, foyers etc. Signage is being placed in buildings to reflect this. For ease, signage will say ‘Face coverings must be worn in this building’. Please note this does not apply in staff offices/break rooms as these are all organised at 2m social distancing therefore a face covering is not required.

From 1 September the majority of Canterbury and Medway campus buildings have reverted to their previous normal opening hours, with free-flow and/or card access exactly as before the Covid-19 closure. You can find a list of exceptions on SharePoint. Those staff working on campus are asked to keep their offices locked and alert Campus Security of any unusual or suspicious behaviour. All access control rights will be reinstated to staff and students from 1 September, but please note that there is no change to the policies regarding staff return.

New signage is being placed on single occupancy offices to discourage one to one meetings with students being held in these spaces. Building managers will be responsible for displaying this signage. In addition, capacity limits on toilets are to be removed to prevent pinch points once students return. New signage will be displayed asking users to be aware the toilets may be busy and to potentially find alternative facilities.

New and returning students

Information for students is contained on the following sites and downloadable campaign materials are now available on our Welcome-2020 webpages.

• Safe Study Social – overview of the return to campus
• Getting Started – essential registration and information for new students
• Hello Kent App and Hello Kent site – welcome campaign for new students
• Welcome Back – welcome campaign for returning students

Corporate Communications are working on a campaign to encourage positive behaviours among staff, students and visitors on campus. Work is also taking place with Canterbury City Council, residents’ associations and other local partners to support students’ return to the community.