Access to Moodle is restored now. We’re sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
A technical fault with our server management system this weekend affected Moodle as well as other systems. Our specialists worked on Sunday evening and early Monday morning. We were able to fix the problem by 10am on Monday.
If you have any further issues with Moodle, or any other IT services at Kent, please let us know.
We are delighted that Robin Ince has agreed to give the 2020 Linda Smith Lecture, at Gulbenkian on Tuesday 5 May.
Robin is one of comedy’s great polymaths. As a stand-up comedian, co-presenter of Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage (with Professor Brian Cox) and the Book Shambles podcast (with Josie Long), and the author of the excellent I’m a Joke and So Are You (Atlantic Books), Robin’s thoughts on the nature of comedy promise to be fascinating and surprising.
Tickets are £6 and can be bought via the Gulbenkian website
Come and support the Kent Malaysian Society as the put on their annual Malaysian Night and flagship event Wira Malaya!
Their production will take place in the Colyer-Fegusson Concert Hall at 19.00 on Saturday 7 March, with doors opening at 18.30!
Wira Malaya, which is kindly supported by the Kent Opportunity Fund, is an artistic retelling of Malaysian history by incorporating football in acting, singing and dancing to give an entertaining and innovative way of presenting Malaysian culture. In the spirit of the 2020 Olympics, the production is inspired by the true story of the 1980 Malaysian national football team and their quest to qualify for the 1980 Summer Olympics.
Watch the trailer!
To book your ticket please visit the Gulbenkain website
Worldfest returns for 2020 in Canterbury and Medway! Running from the 9-13 March, the popular celebration of cultural diversity features the delectable International Food Fair, the International Showcase (the ultimate cultural talent contest) and Holi, the Hindu colour-throwing festival and celebration of spring.
New to Worldfest this year are the workshops by Music for Change in the Sports Centre and the Voices of (Un)Belonging creative event by the Decolonise UoK group, featuring LowKey. At Medway there are quizzes, workshops, performances and lots of creative fun to get involved in.
The full programme is available online at www.kent.ac.uk/worldfest
To help you prepare for the exam period, we have brought lots of ideas for you together in one place so you can be thinking about incorporating some activities that make you feel good during stressful times.
Are you ready to #TrySomethingNewForFree? We will have a huge variety of inspiration at #EnhanceYourWellbeing2020 – come and discover some fun and practical ways to improve your wellbeing and get some balance in your life.
Come along to Keynes Atrium on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 February 12.00-14.00 for information stalls, craft activities, games, dog therapy, free massages, free haircuts and a lot more! Free healthy snacks will be available so come and grab some fuel as you go through Keynes #LoveYourMindLoveYourBody.
Many societies like Mindsoc, UKC Krishna Consciousness Society, BEAT and Coppafeel will be talking about what they do and how you can get involved. You can talk to Kent Sport about the initiatives they run to help people try new activities, or you can get stuck in and start rowing, and then have a taster massage to relax.
There will be a variety of craft and artistic activity that you can sit down and have a go at for as long or as little as you like, as well as games and information on accessing support whenever you need it during your studies.
Find out about various types of staff and student led groups, from neurodiversity, to the Wellbeing Café, which is every Monday from 15.30-16.45 in Turing Hut 8 – a place to have a free hot drink and chat, and get involved in activities linked to nature and wellbeing.
There are some free workshops by our own University chefs taking place throughout February and March. These workshops include breadmaking, mince beef/quorn mince three ways and making decadent deserts.
If you fancy learning some new skills in the kitchen, make sure you book one of the limited places online for cooking workshops.
Do you also know that there are lots of opportunities to enhance your wellbeing for free in the city centre?
Take a study break and go down to the Beaney Institute of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury’s city library which is free for all to access and includes both a large selection in the lending library, and 3 floors of art galleries. On Monday 2 March there will be an exclusive mindfulness tour of the Beaney for University of Kent students from 16.00-17.00, limited spaces can be booked online for the Beaney tour.
Waterstones in Rose Lane, Canterbury, is also hosting two wonderful wellbeing events, An evening of storytelling and dance on Thursday 27 February from 18.30-20.30 and Universities’ Mental Health & Wellbeing Evening on Thursday 5 March 18.00-21.00 where students can get 20% off any books. The café will be open, there will be free snacks and non-alcoholic drinks, with live music and taster sessions of guided meditation practice on the top floor.
See the full programme of events. For the latest information and booking links, or to tell us your thoughts and ideas on Wellbeing activity, please follow @UniKentSSW on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Did you know that Kent undergrads moving on to postgrad study are eligible for special scholarships and discounts?
Book now for the Postgraduate Open Event to find out more about Kent’s career-focused Master’s and PhD programmes, £12m scholarship fund and to meet the Dean of the Graduate School for tea and cake.
The Postgraduate Open Day is Saturday 22 February, 10.00-14.00 in Darwin College.
James Pearson, a final year Computer Science with a Year in Industry student, won US $150 in Amazon vouchers as part of a global creative coding challenge. James was one of the first 100 entries in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Voice Challenge: Powered by Alexa competition, sponsored by Amazon.
James identified that approximately 15% of people have some trouble hearing (according to a 2012 study of US adults) and Alexa’s audible alarms and timers may not work well for them. He decided to make a device that could help people who are hard of hearing or who temporarily cannot hear alarms because they are gaming using a headset or cooking near a loud extractor fan.
James said: ‘People are generally very good at detecting movement, even out the corner of their eyes so I realised that having some flags indicating when Alexa was doing things could be really helpful if you can’t hear it.’
James built a Mindstorms device with two flags on it, the smaller blue flag indicates when Alexa has heard an instruction, and the red flag indicates when alarms, reminders or timers are ringing on the device. James continued: ‘The flag raises at different angles to show different things. You can test it is working by saying “Alexa”, which moves the small blue flag around. The red flag moves to indicate timers, reminders and alarms’.
To find out more was this YouTube video.
Are you a girl interested in learning how to code? Are you a girl ready to join the technological revolution and make a change in the world?
Code First Girls coding workshop returns this term. Students from the School of Computing are running a free weekly coding course exclusively for girls! They will be teaching you how to write in languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JQuery – the basics of making your own website.
At the end of the course, you’ll receive a certificate of completion which will be a great valuable addition to any CV.
Email Adriana Samareanu on ams79@kent.ac.uk to find out more.
Following the October 2019 ballot of its members on pay and conditions, the University and College Union (UCU) has announced another period of national strike action. At Kent, this is due to begin on 24 February 2020 and will last 14 days, concluding on 17 March 2020. The planned strike days are:
We have updated our student website containing information about the industrial action that is taking place this academic year, a list of FAQs and the support available to you. Hopefully this will answer some of your questions and we will be regularly adding more information over the next few weeks.
Please be assured that your education is our utmost priority at this time. We are continuing to do all we can to minimise disruption and the impact of the industrial action on those of you that are affected.
We will continue to keep you informed of further developments via the Student Guide, @unikent on Twitter and email when necessary. You can also speak with the staff in your academic school who will be able to provide information specific to your course.
Please continue to attend all your scheduled teaching during this time.
The government has advised that Chinese nationals in the UK, compliant with their visa conditions prior to the coronavirus outbreak, will have their leave automatically extended to 31 March 2020 if their visa has an expiry date between 24 January 2020 and 30 March 2020.
You don’t need to do anything to get this extension and will be subject to the same immigration conditions as your last visa.
Your new expiry date (31 March 2020) will be added to UK Visa Immigration’s systems.
Further information is available here.
Information is also available on the following categories:
Switching to a Tier 2 category in the UK
British nationals whose passport is at a Visa Application Centre (VAC) in China
Chinese or third country nationals whose passport is at a Visa Application Centre (VAC)
Licensed Tier 2, Tier 4 or Tier 5 sponsors: absences due to coronavirus
The Home Office will keep this under review, especially if the length of absences mean a potential repeat of period of studies become necessary.
For more information, please see the government’s Coronavirus immigration guidance.