The meeting of the University’s Court on Friday 3 February 2017 was very well-attended with the highest turnout in recent years.

Members of Court gathered for refreshments before the meeting started and it was pleasing to see so many members, including Emeritus Professors, former students and former members of the University Council, return to the University for the meeting.

Sir David Warren, Chair of the University Council, chaired Court; the Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, gave a presentation on the Annual Review 2016 and Bob Scruton, Chair of the Finance and Resources Committee, presented the Financial Statements for 2015/2016.

Professor Jane Reeves, Co-Director of the Centre for Child Protection, gave a presentation on innovation in teaching and learning, and the success of the award-winning Centre for Child Protection, which was very well-received.

It was the Vice-Chancellor and President’s final meeting of Court before her retirement, scheduled for August 2017, and Sir Julian Brazier, MP for Canterbury and Whitstable, thanked her for her outstanding achievements and extremely successful period of leadership.

Book your place now for the second Student Success mini-seminar, to be held on Medway and Canterbury campuses next month (March).

The seminar, which will provide an overview of the student experience activities at Kent Business School by Kayleigh Bliss and Caroline Hawkett, will take place on:

• Wednesday 8 March 2017, Medway Campus, Sail and Colour Loft Building, Seminar Room 216, 13.00-14.00.
• Friday 10 March 2017, Canterbury Campus, Marlowe Building, Lecture Theatre 2, 13.00-14.00.

The purpose of the event is to share details about student experience at Kent and to allow colleagues from across the University to meet and exchange ideas.

The seminar will provide an overview of the adaptations applied at Kent Business School Medway as part of the Student Success Project. We will discuss the School’s approach to the project and the four overarching issues that have driven our work to date; Expectations, Non-attendance, Engagement and LTA practices.

We will provide further detail on the adaptations that have proven most successful – including the introduction of peer mentoring, student report cards and the pilot of an Academic Skills Development Week for stage one students. We will also discuss where activities haven’t had the desired impact and explore reasons for this.

All staff are invited to attend. To register your attendance please email Elizabeth Buswell.

Student Success (EDI) Project bulletin

The latest Student Success (EDI) Project bulletin is now available on the staff-only section of the Student Success website.

This term’s bulletin provides a more detailed outline of the work being carried out in phase one schools. Please feel free to circulate to colleagues.

Haydn’s popular Nelson Mass will be performed in the Royal Dockyard Church, Chatham on Wednesday 29 March by the University of Kent Choir and Orchestra (Medway).

The Mass will be conducted by Dr Stelios Chatziiosifidis and the soprano will be School of Music and Fine Art alumna Philippa Hardiman. It will be preceded by a talk from Richard Holdsworth MBE about Nelson and the Historic Dockyard Chatham

In 1771, a 12 year-old Horatio Nelson arrived in Chatham to begin one of the most celebrated careers of all time. In a unique collaboration to celebrate these historic connections between Britain’s most celebrated naval figure and the award-winning Historic Dockyard Chatham, the School of Music and Fine Art (located on the Dockyard) and the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust will present a performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei of Haydn’s popular Nelson Mass.

The Nelson Mass is Haydn’s largest and his only minor-key mass, set in D minor at the opening, but leading to a victorious D major finale. It is also one of his most well-known and beloved choral works, and notable for the demands on the soprano soloist. Haydn later catalogued the Nelson Mass as Missa in Angustiis (mass for troubled times).

Tickets, priced £10, are available for purchase from the Gulbenkian webpages and the Historic Dockyard.

We are looking for volunteers to assist with a variety of duties at this July’s graduation ceremonies.

The ceremony dates and times are available on the Congregations webpages.

This is a special day for all of our students and staff so any help you can offer at any of the ceremonies would be appreciated as we aim to make the day as memorable as possible for all our guests. We would not be able to achieve the success of Congregations without your help.

Any helpers who volunteer at two consecutive ceremonies in one day will be provided with refreshments.

We offer full training for your roles and members of our team will be there on the day to support you.

We have a variety of roles and if you’d like to help or need further information please email congregations@kent.ac.uk with the dates and times that you are able to assist.

If you have never volunteered at Congregations, then this year is your year!

Darren Ellis
Corporate Events Manager

Fauré’s Requiem will be performed by the University Chamber Choir on Friday 3 March in The Crypt at Canterbury Cathedral.

Conducted by Daniel Harding and Douglas Haycock, the concert features a new chamber edition by Michael Higgins of Fauré’s sublime setting, releasing its radiant harmonies, against the backdrop of the Cathedral’s evocative Eastern Crypt.

Also including works by Purcell, Warlock, Lassus, Alexander Campkin and Alec Roth, the concert presents fragments of dreams, desire, loss, dance, beauty and sleep, culminating in a tranquil vision of redemption and eternal rest in Paradise.

Tickets, priced £13 (full) and £7 (reserved) are available from Gulbenkian webpages.

The concert is in memory of David Humphreys whose fund continues to sponsor this annual concert in memory of his wife, Julia.

The next meeting of KEIN (the Kent Enterprise and Impact Network) will take place on Tuesday 21 February, from 12:15-13:45, in the Medway Building, Room M3-04 on the Medway Campus. The event comprises a networking lunch, followed by two short presentations with Q+A, and then an informal discussion.

This session will focus on consultancy with a presentation from Dr Jaideep Oberoi, a Lecturer in Finance at Kent Business School. Jaideep developed a consultancy project with a large multi-national insurer. He will share the steps that he took to develop the project and explain why consultancy works for him.

The second speaker will be Kate Farrow from KIE’s Project Development Team. Kate is integral to the smooth running of consultancy projects as she drafts the contracts between the University and partners. Kate will share her expertise of the consultancy process and will be happy to answer any questions you may have. If you have any enterprise ideas or 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 buffet lunch, please make a booking via the Learning and Development website.

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

For more information about this event and the speakers, please see our Enterprise webpages.

If you have any questions or queries, please email: enterprise@kent.ac.uk or phone 01227 824754. We hope to see you there.

KEIN is a network jointly created by Kent Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) and Learning and Development (L&D). It brings together academics, researchers, technicians and other members of staff interested in collaboration, impact, innovation and enterprise activities. 

As the UK’s European university, Kent values intellectual and cultural diversity. More than 25% of our students and over 20% of staff come from outside the UK; for academic and research staff, the figure is even higher at 37%.

Our international community not only contributes to our teaching, learning, research and campus experience, but also to the economic, cultural and social fabric of the region.

On 20 February 2017, there will be a national day of action to celebrate the contribution migrants make to the UK. The national organisers of One Day Without Us have called for a single unifying action to take place at 13.00. Kent, along with other universities across the UK, will recognise the contribution made by our international community.

Come along, bring flags and banners, stand with students and colleagues to show your support, and we will share this moment via social media using #1daywithoutus

Join us
To demonstrate your support, join us over your lunch break from 12.30-13.15 in front of the:

• Registry (student reception side) on the Canterbury campus
• Rochester Building on the Medway campus

You can find out more about One Day Without Us at http://www.1daywithoutus.org/

Each year, the University awards a number of prizes to individual staff or teams for outstanding work in teaching and/or learning support. The call for applications for the 2017 prizes is now open. The closing date for applications is Friday 12 May 2017.

Further details and information on how to apply are available on our Teaching webpages.

The prizes will be awarded by the Vice-Chancellor at a lunchtime ceremony on Wednesday 4 October 2017, to which all staff are invited. Please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk if you would like to attend.