Message from Karen Cox, Vice-Chancellor and President:

As you know, as part of my commitment to meeting as many colleagues as possible and getting views on the University, I am working my way round our schools and professional service departments and having open conversations as part of school meetings and department updates.

In addition, I will be holding three Open Forums for anyone to ‘drop in’. These are currently scheduled for March, May and July. The first of these will be held on Thursday 22 March from 10.00-11.00 in Woolf Lecture Theatre, Canterbury campus (with the next one being held at Medway). These will be open sessions for colleagues to share with me their thoughts on the University, what works, what doesn’t work and how they would like to see things done differently. This will all help to shape the review of the University strategy and priorities over the next few years.

If you are able to attend the first Open Forum, please register your attendance here.

We would like to remind staff who are participating in the UCU industrial action that they are asked to complete an online declaration of their participation in the strike action and action short of strike (ASOS). Whilst there is no requirement or obligation to give advance notification that you are intending to take industrial action of any kind, completing the declaration will allow the University to manage the disruption to our students as effectively as possible. The University will maintain both your employer and employee pension contributions provided that you give consent via the online declaration process in a timely way.

To declare your participation in (or subsequent withdrawal from) the industrial action, please click on this link to log into Staff Connect and select the relevant Industrial Action Form button on the left-hand menu (if you intend to go on strike and participate in ASOS, you will have to click on both buttons). This will then display the declaration forms, please select the form(s) you wish to complete. Once completed, please ensure that you click on the submit button which is in the bottom right-hand corner of the form. Please note that you will need to submit both the strike and ASOS forms separately if you intend to participate in both.

If you have any questions related to the industrial action, please direct them to the Employee Relations & Business Partnering team.

Martin Atkinson
Assistant Director – Employee Relations and Business Partnering | Human Resources

Want to try something new in your teaching? If so, why not apply for a TESSA – our new Teaching Enhancement Small Support Awards?

TESSAs, introduced last term, are intended for Kent colleagues who are interested in encouraging and enabling teaching and learning innovation; or who have a great idea that would improve the quality of teaching, teaching-related activity, support for teaching, or the student learning experience at Kent.

We already have University Teaching Prizes, which reward colleagues on their achievements. But sometimes what’s needed is a bit of funding to try something new, or test out an idea or a different way of working – and now you can apply for a TESSA to do just that.

We’re piloting this small grants scheme during 2017/18. You can apply for funding of between £500 and £3,000, with up to £5,000 on offer for large, high-impact, collaborative projects across the University. All colleagues who contribute to teaching, learning or teaching support are eligible to apply – you don’t have to be an academic, or based in a school.

In our first round, we were delighted to be able to fund 11 high-quality applications from all around the University, and we are now all set for Round 2. The deadline for applications has just been extended to 12 noon on Thursday 17 May 2018, for projects starting during summer 2017/18 or Autumn Term 2018/19. Successful applications will be announced by Monday 4 June.

Find out more, and download the short application form for a TESSA, on our Teaching webpages. You’ll see that previous applicants have been generous in allowing us to publish their forms, so you may be able to link up with someone doing a project similar to the one you are planning.

If you have questions, please get in touch with April McMahon or Jess Sutherland.

The University of Kent has affirmed its commitment to the fair assessment of research through the signing of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and adopting the principles outlined in the Leiden Manifesto.

Professor Philippe De Wilde, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation, says: ‘I am happy to endorse the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, and I have signed up to it on behalf of the University. We have never used journal-based metrics for performance evaluation, and have no intention of doing so. I hope that in future the publication landscape will become more fluid. University repositories, preprint servers, professional societies, start-up publishers and established publishers all have a role to play in disseminating research. With modern IT, there is no reason for a hierarchy between those players. Let us recognise the limits of metrics as well as those of peer review.’

With the adoption of these principles, as an institution, we commit to:

• Be explicit about the criteria used to reach hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, clearly highlighting, especially for early-stage investigators, that the scientific content of a paper is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published.
• For the purposes of research assessment, consider the value and impact of all
  research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications, and consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice.

The implementation of these principles at Kent is supported through the Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC). We recognise that the adoption of these principles is a statement of intent and that there will be a gradual aligning of the policy and embedding the practice at Kent. As issues are highlighted and areas in contradiction with these principles come to light, we will review the policies in light of the principles, ensuring Kent has a robust and fair approach to the use of metrics for research evaluation.

The OSC is providing a route for researchers and professional service staff to report policies, procedures and behaviours that they felt were out of line with the principles included in the DORA and the Leiden manifesto. If you have any such concerns, questions or requests for training then please get in touch so that we can prioritise these requests.

Professor Jane Reeves from the Centre for Child Protection will deliver this Rutherford Grass Roots Lecture, next Wednesday 14 March, at 18.00 in Rutherford Lecture Theatre One, Canterbury Campus.

Thinking differently about topics, particularly those as complex as child protection can be very difficult. There are currently 50,000 children and young people on child protection registers in the UK (NSPCC 2016) and probably many hundreds of thousands more who are groomed and abused online or via online contacts. In order to tackle this level of abuse we have to change the way we think about child abuse, how we train professionals and how we encourage children to protect themselves and their friends.

This lecture will take you on a journey of innovation, gaming and educational theory; from the germ of an idea on how to change child protection training, to the development of a suite of child protection serious game simulations which are used across the UK and all over the world.

For further details, please click here.

Dr Kirsty Corrigan, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has contributed the cover article to the latest edition of History Today magazine, March 2018, entited ‘Brutus: Character Assassination’.

Launched in 1951, History Today is a monthly magazine dedicated to bringing history to a wide audience. Its circulation is approximately 18,500 readers.

Kirsty’s article argues that Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42BCE), the conspirator behind the assassination of Julius Caesar (100–44BCE), did not always act for moral principles or for the benefit of the Roman Empire, as is usually portrayed.

The edition of History Today is on sale now, and full article is available here with an online subscription.

Mick started work as an Estates Worker at the University on 17 February 1975, whereupon he was told – “If you last winter up here you’ll stay forever”. He subsequently became a Gardener in 1979 and then Grounds Supervisor (Manager) in 2002. Mick eventually retired in 2011 having given 36 years to managing and maintaining the University’s grounds.

Mick was well liked and respected around the University with his cheery disposition and “can do” attitude; he was always calm under pressure and well organised and was a leading light in keeping the Grounds Section moving forward, and played a significant role during the 1987 hurricane when he worked tirelessly to clear the campus of fallen trees.

Mick also played a very active role outside the University and had a keen interest in the great outdoors and was part of a shoot, enjoyed his fishing and a whole host of other outdoor pursuits. Mick had an orchard at his home in Staple Street near Faversham where he grew plums and apples, and because of the volume of fruit produced, sold his produce through a local fruitier.

His other passions were Formula 1, and in particular Michael Schumacher and Ferrari and darts. The Grounds team have memories of lunch times filled with fun, laughter, a Pepsi and a Wagon Wheel (his favourite).

Mick was also a popular member of University Council, a Trade Union Representative, a Health and Safety Rep and also a School Governor (Abbey School)

Mick leaves behind his wife Bev, daughter Lisa, son-in-law Scott, and granddaughter Olivia.

His funeral is on Tuesday 6 March at 09.20 at Barham Crematorium. His friends are all welcome to attend

Juliet Thomas, Assistant Director of Estates, Facilities Management