We are pleased to announce that five distinguished researchers from Kent have been selected for sub panel membership/chairmanship from over 4,000 nominations made by subject area organisations to HEFCE*.

University representatives are:

• Professor Gordon Lynch (SECL) – Chair of Sub Panel 31 Theology and Religious Studies
• Professor Alisoun Milne (SSPSSR) – Member of Social Work & Social Policy (Sub Panel 20)
• Professor Paul Allain (School of Arts and Graduate School) – Member of Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies (Sub Panel 33)
• Professor Iain Ramsay (Kent Law School) – Member of Law (Sub Panel 18)
• Professor Richard Whitman (School of Politics and International Relations) – Member of Politics and International Studies (Sub Panel 19)

Over the coming months, panel members will help to define the assessment framework and criteria for the next REF submission in 2021. They will then participate in the assessment itself during the year following submissions.

To find more about preparations for REF 2021 and a full listing of panel appointments to date, see the REF webpages.

(*Higher Education Funding Council for England)

Improve your English for FREE this summer with the Centre for English and World Languages.

We offer English language classes every weekday afternoon from Monday 18 June to Thursday 19 July 2018.

The classes are for anyone aged 16 or over whose first language is not English – you don’t have to be a Kent student. They are taught by students on our CELTA teacher training course.

The classes cover the four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking, as well as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. You will have the chance to meet new people and practice speaking English.

To book your place, please email cewlcelta@kent.ac.uk

For more information, please visit our CEWL website.

A call for papers exploring the role of law in overcoming challenges posed by global sustainable development has been issued to postgraduate students across the social sciences and humanities faculties by Kent Law School’s Graduate Conference committee.

This year’s two-day interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, ‘Law and Millennium Goals: No-one left behind’ will be hosted at Kent Law School on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 June. The call for papers closes on Monday 16 April.

The conference seeks to engage early career scholars in an informal, critical discussion of the legal and theoretical framework underpinning diverse themes within the sustainable development agenda; themes can include (but are not limited to):

• Environmental issues
• Global policy-making and strong institutions
• Human rights
• Corporate responsibility
• Law and development
• Gender inequality
• Access to healthcare and medicine
• Economic and social change
• Transnational law
• International trade

Abstract submissions, no longer than 250 words, should be sent to lawgradconference@kent.ac.uk by Monday 16 April 2018. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by Monday 30 April 2018. Contributors who would like their paper to be considered for the best internal paper prize, the best external paper prize and/or the best poster prize are asked to submit full paper submissions no later than Wednesday 25 May 2018.

The conference also includes the annual Clive Schmitthoff Memorial Lecture. This year’s lecture on Monday 4 June will be delivered by Dr Celine Tan, the Director of the Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE) based at Warwick Law School.

All students are welcome to attend the conference which will be held on Kent’s Canterbury campus. Further details are available via email from the Graduate Conference Committee. Follow the committee’s Facebook page and/or their @KLSPGConference Twitter account for updates.

Members of Kent students, staff and alumni are taking to the Marlowe stage mid-April with local amateur theatre company Canterbury Operatic Society in their production of Oklahoma!

Students Eleanor Farley and Beth Aherne alongside staff members, Leanne Hardy, Mariah Young and Marina Ivanova will be performing with a talented cast of local performers, including some Kent alumni, from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 April including two matinees on the Friday and Saturday.

Oklahoma!, the first musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, making it an even more special production. It is a colourful and energetic musical about an obstacle-filled love story between the dashing cowboy Curly McLain and Laurey Williams, a winsome yet willful farm girl.

The story is set against a colourful background of high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys – pistols and all! The show is chock full of upbeat showtunes and promises to be a very entertaining evening.

Book your tickets online now via the Marlowe Theatre Website.

After a brief break, pubTALK is back! Please join us next Monday at The Jolly Sailor, Canterbury where Dr Heather Ferguson will be discussing ‘The social life of a teenage brain’.

Understanding and predicting other people’s thoughts, feelings, intentions etc is a unique human ability that develops from early infancy, and is often referred to as ‘mindreading’. In fact, in every day life these mindreading abilities are engaged so readily that it’s easy to forget just how complex they are – we are constantly working out what other people do/do not know, to ensure successful interactions, and avoid misunderstandings or embarrassment!

For a long time, it has been assumed that children reach adult-like levels in these important social skills by around seven years old. In this talk, Heather Ferguson will explore the ‘black box’ of a teenager’s mind to discuss how social communication abilities continue to develop change across the teenage years, and what might influence these changes, both positively and negatively.

As usual, pubTALKs will be in the upstairs function room at The Jolly Sailor, Canterbury. Doors open at 19.00 for a 19.30 start and entry is free of charge. Everyone is encouraged to stay behind after the talks to continue the discussions for a drink or two!

You can find out more about pubTALKS via our website or by subscribing to our mailing list.

Our popular one month membership offer is back again this spring – from 1 April to 30 April 2018 inclusive, you and your friends and family can enjoy a wide range of activities for half the usual price of Gold public membership at Kent Sport.

Adults can get membership for just £35.50. Juniors (anyone in full-time education or 16 to 18 years old) pay just £28. Under 16’s pay £3.90 per activity.

The Spring membership offer provides unlimited access to modern sports facilities including the fitness suite, squash courts, all outdoor facilities and entry to all fitness and dance classes. If you’re looking to explore the campus, and maybe further, then Gold members can also hire a range of high-quality bikes for free through the Kent Sport Cycle Hub.

To purchase your membership, visit the Sports Centre or Pavilion receptions. Membership is available to purchase and use until 30 April only. For further details and terms and conditions, please visit our membership webpage. You can view the Kent Sport facility opening hours here.

*To apply for the junior rate please bring with you proof of full-time education (student card etc.)

To stay up to date with Kent Sport news, events and special offers, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @UniKentSports

Dr William Rowlandson, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, was interviewed for the Portuguese daily national newspaper Público concerning the ongoing industrial action in Higher Education in the UK.

Público is a daily newspaper published in Lisbon, with a circulation of around 28,000.

In the interview, published on 25 March 2018, William puts the industrial action into a wider context of changes to Higher Education sector.

To read the full article (in Portuguese), please see the page here.

Students from 15 schools involved in the Academic Peer Mentoring (APM) scheme attended an awards ceremony on 28 March hosted by the Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) in UELT. Mentors and colleagues from participating Schools joined in the celebration of students’ engagement and achievements.

The awards were presented to the mentors by Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Education and Dr Louise Naylor, Director of UELT. Mentors and colleagues from Architecture, CEWL and SLAS made presentations and showcased the impact this additional student-centred learning support has had on student achievement. The APM scheme is an important intervention in the University’s Student Success project.

The APM experience shows that mentors benefit greatly from the scheme as they deepen their understanding of the course content as well as enhance their employability skills.

Please visit the School of Architecture’s blog to hear mentors/mentees’ feedback regarding their experience of the APM scheme.

91% of previous Kent peer mentors, who are in touch with the alumni office, are now in graduate jobs, compared to 80.4% for Kent graduates in general.

“The University’s peer mentoring scheme is a fantastic way for students to develop valuable employability skills such as communication, planning and leadership” (Amy Wiggins Medway Careers Adviser)

95% of mentors would recommend the APM scheme to others.

”Among the most full academic experiences”

“One of my students wanted to drop out but she didn’t and said it was down to the academic peer sessions. She wouldn’t have a degree if we’d let her drop out”

If you would like to be involved in the APM scheme, please check/contact your School’s website/ School as Schools will be shortly recruiting Mentors.

To find out more about the APM, click here or email mailto:slasapm@kent.ac.uk

Entrepreneurs in residence at the University’s Hub for Innovation and Enterprise, Convert Energy, have won the award for Most Promising New Business at this year’s Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.

This year’s award ceremony saw seven companies win accolades ranging from Excellence in Customer Service, Manufacturer of the Year through to Business of the Year, and Convert Energy were delighted to have been selected for the award, which was sponsored by Skills Hub Kent & Medway.

After receiving the award Director David Browne said: ‘We are thrilled to have won this award and receive the recognition for our business.  We always knew the energy sector could benefit from our skills and expertise, bringing something different to the marketplace, but to have independent judges acknowledge where the business is and its future potential is incredible and such a boost to the team.  I want to personally thank the sponsors for selecting us but also as a recent alumnus of Kent and residents within  the Hub for Innovation & Enterprise we certainly could not have developed the business to this stage so quickly without their dedication and support.  I’m a very proud alumnus of Kent and hence there was only one place I wanted to start my business.’

Convert Energy is an independent technical consultancy and low energy products provider, delivering full turnkey projects in the South East and a design/supply service nationwide, founded by Kent Alumni David Browne and Ben Glancy. They have been entrepreneurs in residence at the Hub for Innovation and Enterprise, the University’s dedicated support for entrepreneurship and self-employment, since 2016.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Hub why not visit their webpage.