The Advanced Journal of Professional Practice (AJPP), a peer-reviewed online journal, seeks the articles which demonstrate new knowledge and innovations of a work-related professional practice or practical advancements. The journal allows for the sharing of experiences and gold standard practices for anyone working in a professional role and is inclusive of student dissertation papers, from all faculties across the University.

The AJPP looks for submissions that do any of the following:

• Offers a critical discussion of any area of contemporary professional practice
• Describes applications of research findings, innovation or other innovative to an area of professional practice; and particularly which might be considered and applied by analogy to other disciplines
• Brings together trans-disciplinary activities in relation to professional practice
• Explores the inter-relationship of professional practice
• Contributes to recent developing conversations within professional practice.

Submit your article at: http://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/ajpp

The AJPP is published by the Centre for Professional Practice (CPP). The Centre’s programmes and short courses give you the opportunity to gain academic recognition for the skills, knowledge and experience you have developed in your workplace. Find out more about our part-time, flexible BA/BSc Top-up in Professional Practice or MA/MSc Professional Practice programmes, or an online short course Introduction to Master’s-level Study: www.kent.ac.uk/cpp

Kent is pleased to announce that Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor-Education, will play a key role in a national pilot scheme for the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF).

Professor McMahon has been appointed by HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) as a member of the main expert panel and Chair of the Humanities subject panel for a trial of TEF assessments at subject level.

Another former Kent colleague – Rory Murray, Kent Union President from 2016-2017 – is a member of the Medical and Health Sciences subject panel.

Fifty higher education providers are taking part in this trial, designed to test different methods for assessing university provision at subject level as part of the TEF in future years. These new assessments have the potential to offer applicants more detailed subject information before choosing where to study.

Professor McMahon, who joined the University in September 2016, was previously an Assessor for year two of the TEF in 2016/17.

She has had a distinguished academic career and is a Fellow of the British Academy. She has worked at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield as well as Edinburgh where she held the posts of Head of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science and Vice-Principal, Planning and Resources.

Prior to joining Kent, Professor McMahon was Vice-Chancellor at Aberystwyth for five years.

For further information on year three of the TEF and subject level pilots, and full lists of panel members, see the HEFCE website

Did you know that you can broaden your experience and enhance your skills through a funded Erasmus+ training or teaching visit to one of our partner universities?

Visits provide fantastic opportunities to exchange ideas and good practice; gain insights into the HE/business culture in other countries; and acquire an increased understanding of the needs and experience of international students who come to study at Kent.

You can find out more on our Global webpages.

Some funding is still available for visits which take place before July 2018 so contact Erasmus@kent.ac.uk now to register your interest!

Many partners offer organised Staff Training Weeks focusing on particular areas of work, e.g. Finance or Careers, with a set programme. Go to http://staffmobility.eu/ for details of the events this spring and summer.

The next meeting of the Kent Enterprise and Impact Network (KEIN) will take place on Wednesday 28 February from 12:00 -14:00 in Keynes Seminar Room 14.

In this session, we will look at ‘Enterprising next steps: protecting and commercialising your research’. You will hear from Dr Chris Solomon, a Reader in SPS and Director of spin-out company VisionMetric Ltd, which is the UK’s leading developer and supplier of facial composite software to the police. Also presenting on the day are Technology Transfer Manager Dr Marcus Goodall on protecting and commercialising your research and Enterprise Relationship Manager Marcus Wright, who will provide information on the Hub for Innovation and Enterprise’s dedicated support for start-up development for staff and graduates.

After a networking lunch, there will be short presentations with Q+A, and an informal discussion.  If you have any enterprise ideas already or have ideas prompted by the presentations, this is also an opportunity to share these and hear about how the University can provide support.

All University staff are welcome to attend. To reserve your place at the session, including a free light lunch, please email entadmin@kent.ac.uk and specify any dietary or access requirements.

If you would like to come along for the presentations only, you are welcome to turn up on the day without booking. Feel free to bring your lunch with you.

KEIN, a network jointly created by Kent Innovation & Enterprise and Learning and Organisational Development, brings together staff interested in collaboration. Academics, researchers, technicians and other members of staff can explore innovation and enterprise activities to maximise the impact of their work and find out about alternative sources of funding in an informal setting.

The University has a code of practice that underpins its commitment to freedom of speech within the law. The code is available on the policies and procedures page of the University’s governance website. This code replaces a previous version that had been put in place to meet the requirements of the Education Act 1986.

The aims of the code are: to provide guidance on freedom of speech within the law; to ensure that any restrictions are kept to a minimum; and to outline measures that might be put in place to support freedom of speech in circumstances where there may be concerns about the maintenance of order or health and safety.

It is the responsibility of the Senate, faculties and academic schools to ensure freedom of speech within the law is protected for academic-led events, research and teaching. If you have concerns that an event needs extra measures to ensure that it goes ahead, for instance that there may be disruptive protests; or that an event may go beyond the law, for instance by inciting racial or religious hatred; please contact Keith Lampard, Secretary to the Council and the Court, at the earliest opportunity so that a course of appropriate action may be agreed.

Annex A of the code sets out procedures for student and Kent Union bookings.

An annual report of the operation of the code is submitted to Council every year. The report for 2016-17 is available at http://bit.ly/2Ed1Mqq

The American University of Paris, University of Kent Paris School of Arts and
Culture and the Centre Culturel Irlandais (Irish Arts Centre) are pleased to
announce that Daniel Hahn has been appointed to the first Paris Writer’s
Residency. We look forward to welcoming him to Paris to work with our
students and to join our community of writers.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator with around 50 books to his
name. His work has won him the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the
International Dublin Literary Award and the Blue Peter Book Award. He has
been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the LA Times Book
Awards.

Recent books include the new Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature
and a co-translation of a Guatemalan novel. He is a past chair of the Society of
Authors (the UK’s writers’ union) and currently on the board of a number of
organisations that work with literature and free expression.

The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) publishes bite-sized audio recordings by writers, exploring topics around writing. Dr Maggie Butt, RLF on the Canterbury campus, talks about why she writes on the RIF website.

The RLF is a charity which places professional writers into universities around the country to work one-to-one with student writers. The RLF Fellows hosted by the Student Learning Advisory Service  (SLAS) are here to support academic writing at all levels, both at Canterbury and Medway.  Their aim is “to help write now”. Appointments with them can be booked through SLAS CONNECT, the online booking system for SLAS. In order to book 1:1 appointments, students need to visit this site.

Staff from across the University came together recently to present projects they are working on to enhance the student experience at Kent.

The ‘Festival of Projects’, attended by around 140 colleagues, was hosted by Professor April McMahon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Education and Sukhi Bath, Assistant Project Officer, Student Services.

The Festival was an opportunity for staff to network and identify opportunities for project collaboration. Among projects presented were:

• the award-winning Student Success project and work on the Virtual Student Adviser, helping to create a tailored online experience for students in EDA
• the OPERA project and Integrated Student Frontline Services project, aiming to make our services and information easily accessible to all students
• Kent Union’s work on improving students’ employability and how it is joining with the University to improve academic communities at Kent
• Careers and Employability Service’s Work-Study Scheme and B-Kew work experience bursary
• Student Support and Wellbeing projects, including increasing support for students on the autistic spectrum, encouraging individuals to look after their own wellbeing, and a number of mental health projects
• Internationalisation projects, including ways of adding more international elements to study programmes and encouraging awareness of global issues

The festival was organised by Chloé Gallien, Master of Keynes; Sukhi Bath, Susan Carte and Natalia Crisanti from Student Services; Jess Sutherland, Office of the Vice-Chancellor; and Ben Watson, OPERA project.

You can view all the projects and project leads in the Festival of Projects booklet (pdf).