Medway Campus Chaplaincy is holding weekly ‘Coffee & Cake De-Stress Breaks’ for staff  during April – Stress Awareness Month.

The breaks will take place between 10.00 and 12.00 in Drill Hall Library – DA015 on the following days:

• Friday 5 April
• Monday 8 April
• Tuesday 16 April
• Wednesday 24 April
• Monday 29 April

All are welcome – sign up is not required but helpful for catering purposes.

Please tell your colleagues and plan to come along for ten minutes or two hours, as you are able.

Lynne Martin, Medway Campus Chaplain
medwaycampuschaplain@gre.ac.uk

As part of the Student Success Project’s Inspirational Speaker series, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Politics at the University of Wolverhampton, Meena Dhanda, gave a talk on Wednesday 6 March entitled ‘Caste consciousness: the necessity of internal critique’.

In her talk, Professor Dhanda shared the problems encountered in morally and politically confronting caste consciousness. Fear of ’emergent vulnerabilities’ closes discussion, but attention to internal critiques of inherited ways of life opens the path for truly decolonised ways of thinking. This talk was followed by a meal out with Meena.

Dr Laura Bailey, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics and SECL Student Success Lecturer, said: “In a fascinating talk and a lively discussion over the course of the evening, Professor Dhanda gave us the benefit of her considerable expertise on the issues raised by campaigns to make caste discrimination illegal in the UK, like discrimination based on ethnicity or gender. Along the way, we also learnt the term ’emergent vulnerability’, which is a tactic of claiming victimhood in a way that is parasitic on real victims (at dinner afterwards, for instance, we drew parallels with the #MeToo movement and the way that certain men were portrayed as victims for losing their careers).”

On Saturday 23 March, the Ingram oil tanks will be removed using a crane. The Sports Centre road will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians from 07.00  to 12.00.

The parking bays in the vicinity of the tank bund will be coned off on the evening of Friday 22 March. During the removal, there will be no access to the Sports Centre P&D and Sports Centre Blue Zone car parks .

We apologise for any inconvenience and will endeavour to keep any disruption to a minimum. If there are any queries, please contact Estates Customer Services on ext 16666.

Ronald Wooldridge
Senior Services Engineer (Mechanical)

The Staff Connect absence module, which went live in January 2019, currently allows managers to record their team’s Time off in lieu (TOIL) as authorised paid absences but does not allow for staff to record TOIL being earned.

Feedback from many teams in the University is that they operate individual TOIL management systems (such as e-Days, spreadsheets or Outlook) and would like an equivalent solution in Staff Connect.

The next upgrade of the Staff Connect software in late March will allow the recording of TOIL to be added to the system. It is anticipated that this functionality will be made live in late March or early April after it has been fully tested. New user guides and manager guidance about the use of the TOIL solution will also be made available.

The introduction of the recording of TOIL in Staff Connect fits with the project’s aim to streamline our HR processes and provide employees and managers with a one-stop-shop for most HR-related activity. It will deliver a consistent way of recording TOIL across every area of the University and support the principles of Simplifying Kent in reducing duplication of systems with their associated costs and effort.

TOIL guidance

Paid TOIL on an hour-for-hour basis can be awarded to those who are contractually obliged to work a prescribed number of hours per week.  The decision whether to offer time off in lieu will be made by the responsible supervisor and will be communicated to the member of staff before the work is undertaken. The taking of TOIL leave must be mutually agreed between the member of staff concerned and the responsible supervisor.

TOIL balances in Staff Connect are kept separate from annual leave entitlements. For Staff in grades 1-6 TOIL can be earned by the hour. For Staff in grades 7 and above, TOIL is an informal non contractual arrangement but may be accrued, by exception, only in half day or full day blocks and where pre-agreed.

For all staff TOIL should be taken in half-day or full day blocks.

In the case of grades 1-6 if a staff member with an outstanding TOIL balance changes post or leaves the employment of the University of Kent, they should speak to their line manager to arrange to reclaim this TOIL. If the TOIL cannot be taken then the department may choose to pay this TOIL balance as overtime. There is no corresponding entitlement for grades 7 and above.

Many of you have enquired about various aspects of the Organising for Success project and how you can find out more about what is proposed and be able to raise issues that concern and/or interest you.

Organising for Success is built on four key proposed changes:

1. Creation of new academic groups.
2. Creation of new administrative and professional support arrangements for these new academic groups. These new arrangements will include devolved resources from some professional service departments and would involve the removal of the current faculty structure.
3. New Executive Group (EG) portfolios to build on synergies across professional service functions, reflect strategic themes and strengthen the focus on the student experience. These new portfolios will mean that a range of existing central professional service units will have different reporting arrangements.
4. New leadership model for our academic groups with leaders who are empowered and equipped to enable their areas to respond positively to our new environment and challenges.

There are clearly some significant changes included in these headline proposals and so we are holding a series of five topic-based engagement sessions during March/April on:

• Devolution of Professional Services
• Organisation Structure (excluding schools)
• School Configurations & Governance
• The Faculty Layer
• New Leadership Model

Each of the sessions will be led by a member of the Executive Group (EG) and take place on a range of dates and in various locations. If you’re interested in attending a session, click on Staff Connect, where you can search for the session(s) you’re interested in under ‘Training Request’. Select ‘Briefings and Updates’ in the drop-down menu marked ‘Type’ and hit the blue Search button to see all the sessions.

As we are using Staff Connect to manage event bookings, each one will generate a request to your line manager to authorise your attendance – it is our expectation that managers will support attendance unless there are strong operational reasons justifying a refusal.

All the events are designed to cater to large audiences of approximately 50 staff. Where we are over-subscribed, we will look to arrange additional sessions where possible. There will also be a number of pop-up roadshow events detailing more about the changes and collating feedback.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, speaks to SECL alumnus Abi Hawkins, Head of Religious Education at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School in Canterbury.

Abi graduated with BA (Hons) in Philosophy in 2018 and now teaches pupils in key stages 3-5. In the interview, Abi explains that she always wanted to become a teacher and why she especially enjoys teaching subjects she struggled with the most at university, eg the philosophy of language.

In this podcast, we learn about the challenges Abi has faced in teaching subjects with which she formerly struggled; playing an orphan in ‘Annie’; why Abi remembers listening to a CD of upbeat cover songs in Australia at the age of ten; why she is not a fan of 3D film; what happened when she once went to a sing-a-long version of her favourite Christmas movie; using film in teaching; how students are more involved in politics now than was the case in the past; what happened when Abi was once asked in a bar to explain what Philosophy is; why she used to love the pressure of exams and why she feels she has fulfilled the dreams she has had since childhood.