Considering staying on for a Master’s after graduation?
Did you know there are lots of benefits for Kent students who decide to progress to postgrad study at Kent?
Find out more about scholarships, funding, information events and further opportunities at our Postgraduate Open Event on 20 November in Sibson Building. Let us help you reach your full potential.
You’ve got what it takes. Take the next step.
This event is for potential postgraduate students and their supporters.
The Cultural Events Fund is now open for applications for student-led events!
If you have an idea for a cultural event, or want to develop your leadership and planning skills, why not turn your event into a reality?
Funded by Global and Lifelong Learning, the Fund offers University of Kent students the chance to apply for a financial award of up to £200 to help run a multicultural event.
Previous events supported by the fund include the Kent Students’ Union Cultural Showcase, Cultural Food Festival, Diwali, Lunar New Year, Thanksgiving, Kent African Summit, Newroz, Holi, an African Evening Gala, a Discover Islam event, a Japanese Cultural Festival and a Thai Festival.
Your event can be anything you like, as long as it aims to benefit as wide a part of the University community as possible.
To apply, simply visit the Cultural Events Fund website to complete the online application form. You’ll need to explain in the form how the event or activity will foster multicultural learning and community building within the University, as well as how you plan to measure the success of the event.
Once we receive your completed application, we will aim to get back to you within a week to let you know if you have been successful. If you have any questions, you can email DeanGlobalLifeLong@kent.ac.uk, including the subject line ‘Cultural Events Fund’.
All students enrolled at the University are eligible, but applications must be submitted at least six weeks in advance of the event; the fund cannot reimburse events that have already taken place.
Why not apply to the Fund and turn your event idea into a reality? Visit the Cultural Events Fund page for further details.
Brighter Futures Grants are back! That means 10 students will have the chance to win
£1,000 each.
The funds can be spent on rent, bills, or study resources you need for university work. This is just the latest in a series of initiatives run by our partner Santander, helping students to take studies to the next level and break down barriers.
All of our students are eligible to enter, including undergraduates, postgraduates, part-time and full-time students.
You also don’t need to bank with Santander to get involved. Spread the word, share with your friends, coursemates and housemates.
Entering is quick and easy:
1. If you haven’t already, register for Santander Open Academy – a free online learning platform
2. Follow the verification link in your confirmation email
3. Log in and choose ‘Get Started’ to complete your entry into the Brighter Futures Grants programme. From the menu you need to select University of Kent.
4. Get your entries submitted by 23:00 on 5 December 2024.
What are you waiting for? Enter by 5 December 2024 for your chance to win.
Tim from Skills for Academic Success shares top tips for managing academic deadlines…
Academic assignments do not always arrive one at a time with their deadlines conveniently spaced out. So here are a few tips that will help you manage multiple deadlines.
Break assignments down: Consider the stages of work that you’ll need to undertake to complete each assignment. These may include tasks such as planning, researching, drafting, editing, and checking. If you identify and understand the individual steps that are required to complete your assignment it will appear less daunting. This, in turn, will prevent you from procrastinating and enable you to start work on it. Starting assignments as early as possible will help you meet your deadlines.
Use a term planner: Seeing your academic deadlines clearly marked on a planner or calendar (alongside all your other fixed commitments such as lectures and seminars) will allow you to plan accordingly to meet them. So, working back from the deadline, allocate time for each stage of work on your planner. If you are working on multiple assignments, you can colour-code each one to give you a clear overview of which assignments you need to be working on during any given day or week. Your term planner will help you stay on track to meet your deadline, but if you find yourself falling behind schedule you can review and amend it.
Work efficiently: Meeting deadlines is not just about allocating time for each stage of an assignment. It also means using that time as efficiently as possible, by breaking each day into chunks of time and allocating a specific task to each of them. Each task should be goal focussed – whether that goal is meeting an assignment deadline or revising for an exam. It should also be achievable. For example, for a two-hour study period set yourself the task of reading and taking notes on a useful chapter of a book (which you can do), rather than the entire book (which you probably can’t). This technique will help you build momentum and feel that hour after hour, day after day, you are taking a series of small but successful steps towards meeting your deadline. Allow time for breaks and vary your activities during the day – perhaps mixing some reading and notetaking tasks with some planning and writing tasks – to help you stay fresh, engaged and productive.
Finally, don’t suffer in silence: Deadlines rarely move, so start assignments as soon as you can, and address problems when they arise. If you don’t understand a question, seek clarification from your lecturer. If you feel you don’t know how to start planning or writing your essay, or feel stuck half-way through writing one, seek advice on essay writing from Skills for Academic Success.
Good luck with your assignment!
Two alumni entrepreneurs shared the highs and lows of founding their own businesses at the launch of the Business Start-Up Journey 2024 in Canterbury.
Speaking to a lecture theatre packed with students, Alex Ford, founder of fintech company Claro Wealth, and Nadia Simpson, founder of From Amora, a social media-based fragrance and beauty brand talked candidly about their entrepreneurial journeys.
Nadia Simpson, KBS alumna, shared valuable insights on running a successful e-commerce business with an impressive social media presence.
She said:
“I started my hair and wellness brand at the University of Kent in 2018, during my first year. It began as an idea to create natural hair care products that didn’t contain the toxins often found in commercial products.
Since then, I’ve started other businesses, but currently, I’m focusing on From Amora, which specialises in creating cruelty-free and alcohol-free perfume oils. My future plan is to merge my two businesses.
The advice I give to everyone is to never give up! Consistency is your best friend. You may not see results at first, and you may fail initially, but it’s up to you to get up and stay consistent!”
Alumni speakers Alex Ford and Nadia Simpson.
Alex, who studied computing and business at University of Kent, said:
“It was incredibly hard to get the business off the ground. We were challenging the traditional financial advice industry. As a start-up should, we were on a mission to disrupt the market. It meant long days, weeks, and months, with many pivots and changes, all in the hope that it would pay off in the end.
The best part of running your own business is working with amazing people on a project you’re passionate about. These people share the mission and are driven to achieve it, something you don’t always experience in a job.
My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: just go for it! I didn’t start my entrepreneurial journey straight out of uni, and I wish I had.”
After the keynote speeches, the audience quizzed the alumni founders touching on everything from the risks of starting up a business, to funding and finance. Afterwards there was the chance to network.
The event marked the start of the University’s flagship entrepreneurship support programme, the 15-week Business Start-Up Journey, which is run by the ASPIRE team.
Offering a step-by-step guide to starting a business, it inspires students with the knowledge and skills required to become successful entrepreneurs through interactive workshops and classes, delivered by ASPIRE’s entrepreneurs-in-residence and external experts.
The programme concludes with a pitching competition, where participants can win £1,000 in funding.
To join the Business Start-Up Journey or find out more about ASPIRE and how we support entrepreneurs and start-up, email ASPIRE@kent.ac.uk.
EmpFest is a two-week Employability Festival run by your Careers and Employability Service. There will be a programme full of presentations, workshops, guest speakers and opportunities to meet with industry experts.
EmpFest is open to all Kent students at all stages of their degree. Whether you are in year 1, 2, 3 or you are postgrad student, there is something for everyone. Explore career sectors that interest you, meet employers, say hello to your Careers and Employability team and discover opportunities to enhance your career prospects.
While the majority of events will take place on the main campus at Canterbury, there will also be some events in person at the Medway campus (which will be clearly indicated on the programme) and, of course, online events. You can catch the Campus Shuttle to travel between Medway and Canterbury campus for free.
There’s a huge range of events you can join including Employer in the Foyer, skills development workshops, panel events, networking events and the Autumn Careers Fair.
You can gain at least 10 Employability Points by attending all events organised by the Careers and Employability Service. Find out what EP points are and how you can use them to gain employability opportunities!
Our Autumn Careers Fair also takes place within EmpFest and is an amazing opportunity to meet with a wide range of employers and organisations. Taking place on Thursday 17 October 10:00-15:00 in Colyer-Fergusson, the Careers Fair is a chance to scout out work experience, placement and internship opportunities, as well as a graduate career opportunities.
Find out more about EmpFest 2024.
The Careers and Employability Service are running the ‘Destination Success Bootcamp‘. This is an exciting, 3-day intensive training programme with the purpose of helping you map out your journey to success and build confidence in your abilities. This programme is suitable to those across all years, including recent graduates.
This programme will be delivered face to face on the Canterbury Campus (Friday 8 November 12L00-16:00, Saturday 9 November 10:00-16:00 and Sunday 10 November 10:00- 16:00).
The programme will focus on:
Find out more and book your place.
If you have any queries, please email studyplus@kent.ac.uk
Applications for the Wellbeing Student Advisory Board are now open.
The Advisory Board’s purpose is to help guide Kent Students’ Union and the University of Kent in improving our approach to student wellbeing and ensuring our work is impactful and accessible to all students. This will involve discussing current and future plans and offering suggestions based on the board’s shared expertise and experiences. Topics discussed at meetings will include mental health, safety initiatives, the cost of living crisis, sense of community and belonging, as well as anything else that is important to you. You will help shape student wellbeing at Kent.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for 12 students on undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, from a range of courses and years to create a diverse and inclusive panel. Any student who is currently enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate degree at the University of Kent can apply to be part of the panel.
No prior experience is required to be a member. All you need is to be passionate about student welfare and helping all students to love their time at Kent.
What to expect
A two-hour meeting will occur three times in the academic year with additional opportunities to get involved in projects and campaigns. Invitations for these meetings will be sent once membership to the board is confirmed.
Students based on the Canterbury campus will receive £20 KentOne credit (or an Amazon £20 Voucher) in exchange for their active participation in the two-hour WSAB meeting. Students who are not based on the Canterbury Campus will be compensated for their time at the same rate through an alternative method. Students will also be able to earn Employability Points throughout the academic year.
How to apply
To apply, please submit either a maximum of a 500-word response or a 2-minute-long video telling us a bit more about you, what skills and experiences you feel you would bring to the role and why you would like to get involved.
The deadline to submit your application is midday on 23 October 2024
If you have any questions please email Teslimat Bello (Vice-President Welfare and Community) at Kent Students’ Union, t.bello-650@kent.ac.uk
Hi, I’m Tim from the Student Learning Advisory Service, here with a few hints and tips as you prepare to resit one or more of your exams.
Firstly, stay motivated. The satisfaction of successfully passing your exams awaits you, so stay highly-focussed on reaching this important goal over the coming weeks. Free up as much time as you can to ensure success, perhaps by rescheduling some less important activities.
Consider any feedback that you may have received on your previous exams. What does it indicate that you need to improve for your resit? Perhaps you need to improve your depth of knowledge around a particular topic, or ensure that you include more key ingredients in your answers. Identify and use feedback to help you steer your preparation.
Reflect on how you managed the previous exam. Perhaps it was not lack of knowledge that let you down, but your exam technique. Perhaps you lost track of time so that you failed to complete the exam paper, or forgot to plan your answers before writing and lost your way halfway through them. Identify and note down any potential improvements to your exam technique that you can make, and practise them before your resit.
Plan your time so that you use it as efficiently as possible between now and your resit. Having identified gaps in your knowledge or aspects of your exam technique that require improvement, draw up a schedule on a time planner that will enable you to address all these issues in time for your exam. Break each day into one- or two-hour chunks of study time, each allocated to an achievable goal – be that revising from your notes on a specific topic, practising writing an essay under timed conditions, or committing important facts, formulas or theories to memory.
Remember that your exam is a performance. While you’ll want to work very hard between now and your resit to achieve the best possible result, you will need to stay fit and well at the same time. Establish a routine that balances your revision with enough sleep, regular breaks, good food and fresh air to keep you in excellent shape for your exam.
Finally, consider a 1-1 with an advisor from the Student Learning Advisory Service, to discuss revision skills, essay writing, exam techniques or any related topics before you resit your exam. You can book an appointment via the Student Learning Advisory Service website, where you will also find printable time planners to help you plot your course to success.
Good luck with your resit.
As we move closer to the end of the academic year, we’d like to encourage you to return your library books to the Templeman Library.
Please take any opportunity when you’re visiting campus to return books you no longer need, especially if you’re a final year student and are leaving Kent this year, or are going to be away from campus over the summer. Books you have borrowed can still be reserved by other people during the vacation.
Our postal address is:
Book Returns,
Templeman Library,
University of Kent,
Canterbury, Kent,
CT2 7NU
If you’re unable to return your books by any of these methods, please get in touch with the Library and we’ll work out a solution with you.
Please contact us if you need any help or advice around returning books or any other library or IT query. Our staff are here to help you: