Author Archives: Wendy Raeside

Interested in PhD study? Find out more about funding

Are you thinking about doing a PhD in 2020? The Graduate School is running a series of sessions for anyone thinking about applying for funding from SeNSS (ESRC) and CHASE (AHRC).

Sessions include:

8 November – general funding

13 and 19 November – SeNSS funding

20 November – CHASE proposals

27 November – SeNSS proposals

Find out more and book a place on the Events section of the Graduate School website.

You can also learn more about postgraduate study opportunities at our next Postgraduate Information Event on Thursday 5 December from 17.00-19.00 in Darwin College.

One week left to apply for Housekeeping vacancies

Is someone you know looking for a part-time job?

We may have the answer as we currently have six positions for Domestic Assistants available in the Kent Hospitality Housekeeping department across our Canterbury campus.

All Domestic Assistant opportunities are offered on a permanent contract with part-time hours ranging from eight to 20 hours available. The rate of pay is £16,736 per annum pro-rata.

All applications should be made via the University’s recruitment system with the earliest closing date being Monday 11 November.

You can see all the vacancies available on our Jobs webpages.

If you have any questions about these vacancies, please email hrhospitality@kent.ac.uk

The Global Challenges Doctoral Centre launches ‘GCDC Hangouts’

Are you conducting (or interested in) research that tackles global challenges and benefits developing countries? The Global Challenges Doctoral Centre (GCDC) is delighted to announce the launch of ‘GCDC Hangouts’ – a monthly, interdisciplinary event focusing on research that addresses global challenges.

The Centre’s first GCDC Hangout will take place on Wednesday, 13 November, from 13.00-14.00 in CE329 (third floor of Cornwallis East), and everyone is welcome – whether you are a GCDC-funded PhD, a GCDC affiliate student, a Master’s student, a postdoc, a supervisor or just vaguely interested in research that addresses global challenges, do come along! The session will include a catered lunch and plenty of time for networking and discussion.

The inaugural session will be led by GCDC director, Dr Beth Breeze and is entitled, ‘Philanthropy and the Sustainable Development Goals: what role for private donors?’. Beth will discuss the pros and cons of philanthropic individuals and institutions becoming involved in tackling global challenges and invite you to share your perspectives.

More information about the session and the GCDC is available here and you can book your place by emailing Grace Grussenmeyer at: kentgcdc@kent.ac.uk.

Excellence award for Kent Digital Inclusion Initiative

Kent Digital Inclusion Initiative has been recognised with an iESE certificate of excellence 2019

The certificate recognises the wide-ranging partnership and collective commitment to accessibility between the University and Kent local authorities.

The certificate follows an award of £20,000 Local Government Association (LGA) funding last month (September) for an Initiative-led project to embed digital accessibility and productivity skills training in the wider community.

The University has been working in partnership with Kent Connects (a partnership of Local Authorities across Kent) and Kent County Council (KCC) for the past year. The aim has been to align key strategies around meeting the requirements of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (2018) with a single approach to Accessibility Statements, training, procurement, auditing and use of assistive technologies within both organisations.

The partnership work has been led by George Rhodes and James Church from KCC and Ben Watson from University of Kent Student Support and Wellbeing.

The value of this type of cross-sector working includes sharing and learning from different experiences and skills. Through the shared expertise of the two leading organisations, an initial plan of deliverables was devised focusing on:

Shared resources for improving accessibility made available to all partners
Awareness raising through conferences and training for staff
Engagement with a variety of partners that cover diverse services including Libraries and the NHS
Engagement with central government to represent the concerns of our sectors and to work together to agree common sense approaches to new regulations.

Kent Accessibility Statements

Among results so far have been an accessibility statement published by both KCC and the University – an easier-to-read guide to getting the best from our sites, as well as advice on potential accessibility issues.

The University and KCC were among the first public sector organisations to publish these statements using the new model and our collective statements had over 9,000 hits between June and September 2019. Lessons learnt from publishing the statements were also shared with the Government Digital Service (GDS) which informed the development of their subsequent guidance.

Digital Accessibility Toolkit

All of the Kent Digital Accessibility Initiative’s collective knowledge has now been published in the nationally distributed LexDis Digital Accessibility Toolkit.

Please contact opera@kent.ac.uk if you would like to find out more.

Student Journey game – SECL training session

Staff from the School of European Culture and Languages recently attended a series of training events run by the Student Success Project, where attendees were able to play the Student Journey board game and hear the lived experiences of students of colour.

The event reflected on how unconscious bias might be influencing our behaviour; participants heard about how to be a good ally from Lisa Shoko (from Decolonise University of Kent) and practised decolonising the curriculum with visiting Inspirational Speaker Dr Onyeka Nubia.

Both academic and professional services staff reported feeling inspired by the training events, and came away with lots of ideas about how to make changes to their daily lives to create a more inclusive environment in the School of European Culture and Languages. It is hoped that more events such as this will take place in the future, encouraging colleagues from across the School community to be aware of what they can do to make a difference.

Dr Laura Bailey said: ‘It was great that members of staff made the effort to educate themselves about these important topics. The Kaleidoscope Network ‘principles of respectful listening’ and the student voices we heard were so powerful. The workshops helped us, especially white staff, to understand how deep-rooted the problem of racism is in universities and how we need to be very proactive in addressing inequality.’

Those wishing to know more about the workshops or the project can contact Dr Laura Bailey (SECL Student Success Lecturer) in the Department of English Language and Linguistics.

Rutherford Grass Roots Lecture – 13 November

Join us for The Rutherford Grass Roots Lecture, organised in conjunction with the Former Staff Association, on Wednesday 13 November 2019 at 18.00 in Rutherford Lecture Theatre One.

The lecture is entitled ‘The Enduring Appeal of Holy Relics, The Case of St Thomas Becket’ by John Butler.

Based on his new book, The Relics of Thomas Becket, John Butler’s lecture explores the continuing fascination that the Church of England has with holy relics.

For more information please see the alumni webpages.

Lunchtime Concert: the Preston Ensemble

The second in our series of free lunchtime concerts continues on Weds 13 November with a performance by the Preston Ensemble.

Formed in 2016 by string players in the south east, previous concerts include at the Assembly Rooms in Faversham. For this performance, the group brings Mendelssohn’s Octet to the concert-hall.

The performance starts at 13.10; admission is free, with a suggested donation of £3.

The Lunchtime Concerts series is generously sponsored by Furley Page Solicitors.

Extension to the Brexit deadline

The granting of another extension to the Brexit deadline means that the UK will not leave the EU on 31 October. The University’s Brexit Working Group, led by Professor Jeremy Carrette, Dean for Europe, will continue to monitor the situation.

Professor Carrette said: ‘As Parliamentary discussions continue, we will ensure that the interests of students and staff remain at the forefront of any planning. While much of our immediate activity has been contingency planning in case of a no-deal scenario, we have also been looking to the longer-term impact of Brexit and continue to seek clarification on areas of pressing concern such as mobility, fees, travel arrangements and access to research funding.

‘Whatever the final outcome, Kent will remain an outward-looking university, proud of its European centres and its European collaborations. We will also continue to support staff and students during this uncertain time.’

The Brexit webpages will be kept updated with new information as soon as it is available.

Book now for Alice in Wonderland – 29-30 November

Do you think that your life is becoming ‘curiouser and curiouser’? Some days, do you feel almost two miles high and others only nine inches tall? Does life seem to be one long Caucus Race and have found yourself believing ‘…as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’? Then take a trip down the rabbit hole and enjoy the madness that is Alice in Wonderland – the latest production by the University of Kent Players Radio Theatre.

Taking place at Mungo’s in Eliot College on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 November 2019, this production is the latest in the Player’s radio-style productions following the success of The Philadelphia Story, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Maltese Falcon. The performances will recreate the entire radio drama experience – from actors performing various parts to a live foley team creating sound effects using an array of household objects and of course, a special appearance from our sound effects door!

To add to the fun, we are encouraging the audience to wear Alice-themed fancy dress or to be the epitome of elegance in evening dress. Mungo’s will be serving food from 6-7.45pm and the bar will serve drinks both before and after the performance (but not during), so you can come along and make a night of it!

Tickets are £6.50 for general admission and £6.00 for concessions, and are available online at Eventbrite.

Keep up-to-date with the University of Kent Players on Facebook or Twitter.

Wain Medal Lecture 2019

Harnessing our microbial ‘Guardians of the Gut’ is the title of the Wain Medal Lecture 2019, on Wednesday 30 October at 17.00. The lecture will be given by Dr Lindsay J Hall, Microbiome Group Leader & Wellcome Trust Investigator for Norwich-based Quadram Institute Bioscience.

The human microbiome has emerged as a central player in human health and wellbeing; modulating our immune system, providing resistance to pathogenic microbes, and helping to digest the food that we eat. Importantly, birth and the first 1000 days represents a critical developmental window in which microbes and their human host ‘communicate’, laying the foundations for lifelong health.

It is now recognised that disturbing this fledgling microbial ecosystem has both short- and long-term consequences such as increased risk of infection, allergy, and chronic inflammatory diseases. Thus, understanding the factors that modulate the microbiome during the first stages of life, during pregnancy, and in infancy, is a key research focus.

In this Wain Medal lecture, Dr Hall will discuss the important roles the microbiome plays, particularly during early life, including recent clinical work relating to beneficially modulating the preterm infant microbiome, and our mechanistic studies using model systems to determine mode-of-action for specific microbiota members (ie Bifidobacterium), with a key focus on developing novel live biotherapeutics for improving infant health.

The lecture will take place in Woolf Lecture Theatre on Canterbury campus. Admission is free and open to all.

Picture shows: The dominant infant microbiota member Bifidobacterium.