Category Archives: Finalists

Student smiling to camera

Join Kent’s New Mentoring Scheme: Celebrating Mentoring Month

January marks Mentoring Month, and there’s no better time to invest in your personal and professional growth. If you’re a student looking to make strides in your academic and career goals, sign up for the Career Mentoring Scheme, which partners students with alumni who work in their chosen industry or sector.

By participating in the mentoring scheme, you’ll gain a unique perspective on your chosen profession, develop key skills and knowledge, and prepare for life after graduation.

You can take part in the programme for one or two terms, depending on your needs and availability. The programme is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, with applications accepted throughout the year.

The Career Mentoring Scheme is an excellent opportunity to build your professional network, connect with alumni in your field, and receive valuable advice and guidance. Take advantage of this opportunity to enhance your career journey and apply today!

Take the NSS today

In your final year? Here’s why you should fill in the NSS

The National Student Survey (NSS) is now open at Kent and final year undergraduate students are invited to complete it.

The NSS is your chance to have your say on what you liked or didn’t like about studying at Kent. Take the NSS now. 

The NSS: what you need to know

📣The University and Kent Union value your feedback and the NSS is one of the most powerful ways to have your say. See the Your Uni Your Say webpages for ways we have acted on your feedback.  

📧If you are eligible, Ipsos will email you on Thursday 25 January and will continue to email, text and call you until you complete it (so we recommend you do it early). 

🔒The survey is completely anonymous and confidential. It is run by Ipsos, an independent research agency.

🎓 NSS is mainly open to final year undergraduates.

🕕The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. However, please take the time to consider your answers and reflect on your whole experience at Kent.

Santander Scholarships

Not long left to enter! 10 chances to win £1,000

Register with the Santander Scholarships programme by 20 November for chance to win £1,000!

10 Kent students will win £1,000 for simply registering online with Santander’s Scholarship programme. Through the programme you can:

  • Apply for scholarships and grants
  • Gain work experience
  • Learn the skills graduate employers want

Register now! 

Student Learning Advisory Service…at your service!

Did you know that the Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) is hosting no fewer than twenty five on-campus workshops at Canterbury and sixteen at the Medway campus this term? Most of these workshops are being delivered as hybrid sessions so you can join even if you cannot make it in person. 

As we speed towards the second part of the Autumn term and assessment deadlines start to loom large on the horizon, it’s a great time to seek help from our advisers. Among the various academic skills workshops we have on offer are: 

  • Writing introductions and conclusions 
  • Paragraph writing 
  • Presentation skills 
  • Effective reading 
  • Critical thinking 
  • Using AI as a legitimate tool 
  • Advanced essay writing 
  • Good academic practice using TurnitIn 

Plus we also cover a range of maths and stats topics such as: 

  • Probability 
  • Anova and Chi-square testing 
  • Calculus – stationery points and slopes 
  • Calculus – differentiation 

See all SLAS in-person events and book online.

SLAS is here to help you become your best ‘academic you’ and to achieve your goals. 

LibrarySearch Discover

LibrarySearch Discovery: take your research to the next level

We’re thrilled to let you know about some upcoming enhancements to LibrarySearch to help transform your research. From 1 November we’re launching LibrarySearch Discovery, a pilot scheme running from November 2023 until April 2024.

LibrarySearch Discovery will provide access to 50 million+ curated Open Access resources in addition to the extensive collections already available from University of Kent libraries, making it easier than ever to find the right information for your next assignment or research project.

Open Access (OA) resources are freely available, digital content from around the globe. They are part of a wider ‘open’ movement to encourage the free exchange of knowledge and resources to widen access and encourage creativity.

Open access - examples including good information supply, free and fast access to scholarly information and efficient research and innovation

Key benefits of LibrarySearch Discovery

  • Free access to 50 million high-quality academic journals, ebooks, datasets and educational resources
  • Clearer layout that’s easy-to-use with search results separated by collection type
  • Seamless, accessible browsing of collections anywhere, from any device
  • Intuitive interface to filter and rank your search results.
  • Direct links to available online content regardless of format.

Finding resources will work in exactly the same way, with a simple keyword search in a single search box.

Screenshot showing LibrarySearch Discovery search results screen showing location of new tabbed search content: Library collections; Digital collections and Open Access resources.

The new search results page will initially show you all relevant items held in our Library collections but you can also view search results from our Digital Collections and Open Access resources just by clicking through the three tabs.

We hope that you’ll like the look and improved functionality of the new LibrarySearch Discovery interface. If you would prefer to use the original LibrarySearch or LibrarySearch Digital you can choose the ‘Classic’ or ‘Digital’ views available at the top of the screen.

What’s next

We are really pleased to be able to share these amazing resources with you and hope that you’ll take full advantage of the opportunities LibrarySearch Discovery provides.

We’ll be demonstrating how to get the most out of Open Access content during the year and in our library training.

We are committed to providing you with the resources you need for your academic study and research, and to working closely with you to ensure we have a successful pilot.

If you have any questions please get in touch: helpdesk@kent.ac.uk

Staff at helpdesk

Managing academic deadlines

Tim from our Student Learning Advisory Service (SLAS) 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 the Student Learning Advisory Service.

Good luck with your assignment!

Group of students at Destination Success Bootcamp June 2023

Free Destination Success Bootcamp, 17-19 November

Our Careers and Employability Service are running the Destination Success Bootcamp 17-19 November. This is a 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 17 November 12:00-16:00, Saturday 18 November 12:00-18:00 and Sunday 19 November 12:00-18:00. Each day will start at 12:00, allowing time for those traveling from Medway. You need to attend every day in order to gain a place on the programme.

The programme will focus on:

  • Understanding you – This module aids self-reflection so you can better understand how you work, this will include completing a personality profile, exploring your personal values, your strengths and development areas, imposter syndrome and the power of positivity, finishing with looking at what you want to get out of life.
  • Navigating you – This module with focus on how to nurture and build good relationships, focusing on team dynamics, exploring learning styles and rules of teamwork, having challenging conversations and how to communicate in the workplace.
  • Universal Life Hacks – This final module will give you a toolbox of ideas to hit the ground running, including decision making, planning, prioritising and delegating, mapping your skills and looking at whether you would employ yourself.

Find out more and book your place.

If you have any queries, please email studyplus@kent.ac.uk

Anna Woods

Business Start-up Journey launch: hear from five business founders, 11 Oct

The Business Start-Up Journey Launch 2023: Wednesday 11 October 2023, 14:00-15:30. Sibson LT3, Canterbury, with FREE BUFFET.

Be inspired at the launch of this year’s Business Start-Up Journey where five amazing business founders share their start-up stories.

  • Social entrepreneur Anna Woods went from a highflying career as a buyer for top high street fashion brands, to becoming the founder of her own sustainable fashion business, Positive Retail, tacking the retail industry’s waste issue.
  • Sport and Exercise Science graduate Sophie Broom, the founder of The Awesome Anatomy Co, turned her artistic skills into a thriving business.
  • Computing graduate, Tomiwa Sosanya, the founder of Do You Customs, has won collaborations with big brands with his customised trainers and accessories.
  • Mathematics and Statistics student, Seth Mashate, discovered a gap in the market and plans to revolutionise data usage in the dental industry.
  • Law student, Munya Mwaijumba is launching Glimmer, an app which empowers freelance hairdressers.

Anna of Positive Retail shares:

‘I started this entrepreneurial journey because I knew in my heart the industry needed a solution to overstocks and customers needed to be a presented with a way to shop ‘pre loved & resale’ on the high street that felt compelling.  Resale already had lots of online options ‘vinted/ eBay/ vestiere’ etc but there was no bricks and mortar equivalent that honoured the product properly.  I spotted a gap in the market to create stores where quality and value were honoured, along with the customer experience.  Everything is expertly and thoughtfully curated, we have done the hard work for you- you’re not rummaging in samples sales, or bidding online.  We’re here for you to have a chat and to try on in a premium environment.’

What started as a 6 week popup 2 years ago is now 3 stores with a massively bright future.  We want to be the ultimate destination that brands think of for their surplus stocks and shoppers come for resale.

Being an entrepreneur has felt like a pleasure.  Yes, it’s incredibly tough but after years of bucking against the system and being frustrated with the status quo, I get to bring my own brand to life. It’s thrilling, fun, exhausting and magical.  It’s a gift every day to be able to use all my skills & wisdom to give something to the world I am very very proud of.  I know this is only the beginning.’

Hear from Anna and the other business founders at the launch event, plus find out more about how ASPIRE can support you to start your own business and develop entrepreneurial skills to enhance your career and employability. There will also be a free buffet lunch provided.

See full programme of Business Start-Up Journey events.

All students are welcome to attend.

Email aspire@kent.ac.uk to book your spot.

 

Students sitting around table

Final year students: how the Templeman Library can help you

Help with your assignments

You can get 1-2-1 help from your subject librarian on resources for your final assignments and dissertations, plus referencing advice.

Online support is available on our Library Research Skills Moodle page, including finding material for your research and managing your references.

Careers and employability reading list

Have a look at our Careers and Employability reading list to find books to help you with career choices and preparing for applications and interviews.

Exam-time study support

During exam time, you’ll find additional study spaces and silent study areas plus bookable individual study rooms in the Templeman Library. Study in the way you want to by choosing a study space to suit you. The Templeman Library is open 24/7 in term-time and most study weeks. Check out the Drill Hall Library opening hours at Medway.

Study and work smarter! Check out some of the great tools we recommend, to help you manage your time, take notes and stay focussed plus more.

Look after yourself

Browse our Wellbeing and Self-Help and Love to Read reading lists or check out the accompanying book displays in the Library Café. Libby Kent is a leisure collection of e-books and audio books from a wide range of publishers and genres including contemporary fiction, classic fiction, wellbeing and self-help books, themed reading lists such as LGBT titles and Black Asian and Ethnic Minority authored titles, and more.

Need some time out? The Templeman Library’s Chill Out Zone on Floor 1 provides a quiet space to relax and take a break from studying. If you’re on the Medway campus pop along to one of their wellbeing events.

After you graduate

Don’t want to miss out on the great resources when you graduate? You can join the Library as an alumni member.

Rutherford Wok bar noodles

Campus food: more choices, greater savings

New tasty Grab & Go range, expansion of £3 Meal Deals, extra Flex Meal Plan options and more savings!

Over the summer Kent’s Catering Team have been working hard to bring you some new and exciting ranges across our outlets, while reducing meal prices on average by 20% to help with the cost of living.

See some of the great new offers, price reductions and new catering ranges we have on campus this academic year…

£3 Meal Deal expansion: more choices, greater savings

Students eating in Rutherford Dining Hall

From Saturday 16 September, the popular £3 Hot Meal Deal returned to Rutherford Dining Hall, offering you a choice between a freshly prepared plant-based or meat dish.

Plus, the popular £3 Sandwich Meal Deal, a hit during the summer break at Dolche Vita and Gulbenkian Café, has now expanded to include Sibson Café and Mungo’s.

In addition to this exciting meal deal expansion, the catering team have reduced hot food price on average by 20%. Through reducing food waste, collaborating closely with our primary food supplier, simplifying operations, and managing food expenses effectively, prices across campus have been significantly reduced. For instance, a Gulbenkian breakfast, once priced at £5.95, is now available at just £4.50, a Mungo’s burger and chips was £6.00, now £4.50, a Hut8 9” Margherita pizza was £7.00, now £4.00! Our hot main meals now start at £4.00 across our seven outlets and have reduced the lowest price coffee to £1.85 in Gulbenkian Café, Dolche Vita and Sibson Café.

This reduction in hot food prices shows our commitment to offering affordable dining options while fostering sustainability. By making meals more accessible and cost effective, we are endeavouring to enrich the campus dining experience and encouraging a culture of appreciating wholesome, budget-friendly choices.

New Grab & Go range

Hellas Kitchen (Greek street kitchen), Kerala Curry (Indian street food), Silence of the Tams (plant-based street food) and Three Little Birds (Caribbean street food)

An exciting new grab-and-go range has been introduced on campus, promising a tasty and convenient dining experience for you. The range offers a diverse selection of sandwiches, salads, snacks, fruit, desserts, and reheatable items, carefully designed to cater to a variety of tastes and dietary preferences.

The expanded range brings in delicious new additions such as Jamaican patties, granola pots, burritos, and pasta pots. These additions not only promise convenience but also introduce a burst of flavours to liven up mealtimes. Adding to the excitement, the menu showcases items from global micro brands, including Kerala Curry (Indian food), Hellas Kitchen (Greek food), Three Little Birds (Caribbean Food), and Silence of the Yams (plant-based food), providing a taste experience from around the world.

These tasty grab-and-go items are conveniently located across multiple campus locations including Rutherford Dining Hall, Gulbenkian Café, Mungo’s, Sibson Café, and Dolche Vita.

The introduction of this exciting grab-and-go range at Kent underlines a commitment to providing a diverse, flavourful, and accessible dining experience.

New Flexible Meal Plan options

Rutherford Wok bar noodles

We launched some new Flex Meal Plan options this September.  In addition to the annual Flex Meal Plan, we now have Termly and Mini Flex options which allows you to plan ahead, eat when it suits you, spend less time cooking and more time studying and socialising – all while saving you up to 50% on food.  Our Mini Flex Meal Plan is a great option for commuting students who only want to eat on campus in the day and during the week, rather than paying for evenings and weekends when you aren’t here.

New hot drink loyalty offer

We have launched a new hot drink loyalty offer – buy 9 hot drinks and get your 10th free.  Available in Dolche Vita, Gulbenkian Café, Rutherford Dining Hall and Sibson Café. We are also continuing with our offer if you bring your own keep cup / travel mug into our outlets for a hot drink, you save 10% on your drink order.

Keep an eye out on our catering webpages and UniKentFood Instagram for catering offers, new ranges, new opening times across our outlets and more.