Category Archives: Student Guide

Come celebrate Pancake Day at the Spring Global Hangout

This year, the University’s Global Hangouts have been taken over by Kent’s Global Officers re- designed and incorporating some new fun activities along the way. They have proved to be a huge success.

Our Spring Global Hangout will be no exception, with a pancake-themed event. Of course, there will be pancakes with a selection of toppings, along with a themed quiz plus a pancake flipping competition.

When: Tuesday 25 February 16.00 – 18.00

Where: Gulbenkian Café Bar

Spaces are limited. Get your free ticket to attend at Eventbrite.

Global Hangouts are a series of events co-created with students that take place throughout the year. They are themed appropriately with various activities designed to encourage interaction between attendees and the student hosts. Previous themes have been Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“Our first Global Hangout of the year was a huge success! I’m glad that I got to be a part of organising such a fun and relaxing event. It was so wonderful to see students from all over our University (and the world) come together to enjoy each other’s company and appreciate the many things we have to be thankful for.” – Chiara Batasar, Global Officer 2019/20.

For further details about future events, visit the Global Hangouts website

How To Stay Safe On And Off Campus

Your safety on and off campus means a lot to us and we have a few tools that can help to keep you secure and safe.

Personal alarm

A personal alarm is a small hand-held electronic device that can release siren-like alarming sound when activated. It is used to attract attention in order to scare off an assailant.

Spikey

This is a plastic “use once only” stopper that fits in the top of a bottle and prevent anything being added to your drink without your knowledge. It is manufactured from 100% recyclable HDPE.

Purse Bell

Officially known as Purse Dipping Bells, this item keeps your valuables secure, whilst also raising awareness on pickpocketing and bag dipping. The pair of bells hang from a G-clip that can be attached to purses, wallets, bags or other valuable items. If a thief attempts to remove the item, or if the item is dropped, the bells will jingle and alert the owner.

Canterbury students can collect these items from the Campus Security Office at any time of day or night. The Campus Security Office is part of the banking hall between Marlowe and Grimond.

Medway students can collect all items from the reception of the Medway Building any time from 9.00-17.00, Monday to Friday.

They are available from reception, subject to stock levels.

SafeZone App

Make sure you have downloaded the free SafeZone app gives you quick access to emergency services, first aid and the University.

SDG Fortnight – Teaching Sustainability

In support of the University’s commitment to embedding Sustainability into our teaching, we are encouraging lecturers and teaching staff to pledge to incorporate the Sustainable Development goals into their teaching for one week.

Next week (17 – 21 Feb) we are hosting our first ever SDG Teach-In where academics pledge to incorporate the Sustainable Development Goals into their teaching. At the time of writing, Kent were currently in 8^th place nationally in terms of current pledges and the number of students who will potentially be reached.

A number of academics have agreed to open up their lectures to anyone who is interested. In addition, a number of lectures will also be recorded and made available to download after the event.

Open lectures during the SDG Teach-In Week:

18 February, 13.00 – Open lecture DI510 Conservation & Communities (Charlie Gardner)

All are welcome to join us in GLT3 for this week’s lecture ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Alleviation: linked agendas. This lecture explores the importance of biodiversity for poverty alleviation and discusses the role that conservation can play in meeting multiple Sustainable Development Goals’

18 February, 15.00 – Open lecture SE558 The Anthropocene (Miguel Alexiades)

Come find out more in RLT1 about The Anthropocene: Planetary Crises and the Age of Humans. Exploring the Anthropocene this lecture explores the ‘new normal’: crisis, risk and uncertainty.

21 February, 10.00 – Open lecture HI426 Making History (Karen Jones)

Being held in RLT1, this open lecture introduces students to environmental history as a discipline and encourages a look at the past that puts humans in their ‘place’ as well as thinking about how scholarship and activism might fit together.

Lecturers and teaching staff interested in getting involved in the Teach-In can:

Identify one or more sessions where they can teach the SDGs during or after the week of the 17 – 21 February 2020.
Pledge to take part on the SDG Teach In website
Confirm to sustainability@kent.ac.uk that you are taking part – guidance can be provided to help to plan your session

The SDG fortnight is being organised by the Sustainability Team. For more information, resources including 5, 10 and 30-minute session plans or to view the full programme of events please visit our webpages or email sustainability@kent.ac.uk.

Intro to coding workshop

Do you want to get into coding but don’t know where to start?

Why not drop into one of our fun, free and interactive intro to coding sessions run by the Kent Computing Society?

Location: COPC1 (Cornwallis South East – Octagon)

Time: 18.00 -19.30

Dates:

Wednesday 19 February
Wednesday 26 February

For further information email compsoc@kent.ac.uk or look for Kent Computing Society on Facebook

Codebar Skills Development sessions available

What is codebar?

codebar is an opportunity to network, socialise and do some coding. The workshops are volunteer led and consist of 30 minutes of socialising with food and drink, followed by a lightning talk, then coding.

codebar encourage new participants to work on their HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, Python or Git tutorials. They also help them understand programming concepts.

About the workshops

codebar participants are paired with a coach and can either go through the online courses available via the codebar.io site, or get assistance with their own projects.

The workshops are free to attend and led by Yoyo Design, and form part of the County wide Kent codebar chapter.

Coaches

codebar are always on the lookout for more developers to join their community and help coach at their workshops. If you are interested in being a coach then please visit here.

Participants (Codebar Students)

codebar participants (codebar Students) come from a variety of backgrounds. Some want to become full-time developers, whereas some would like to learn the basics of coding in a supportive environment.

The details:

We have two sessions coming up, one on the 24^th February the other on the 30^th March.

They run from 6.30-9 in Sibson seminar room 6.

Please register before attending.

The February session is worth 15 Employability Points.

To find out more and to register visit the Hub for innovation website.

Postgraduate Open Event – 22 February

Our next postgraduate event takes place on Saturday 22 February 2020, from10am-2pm, on Canterbury campus.

It’s a chance to meet and talk to specialist academics and admissions staff about postgraduate study at our campuses in the UK and specialist centres in Tonbridge and across Europe.

You can also talk to staff from the Graduate School and get the latest information on funding, including loans for Master’s and PhD students.

Find out more on our Visit Kent webpages.

Kent Sport student and staff membership sale

This Valentine’s, we want you to treat yourself. That’s why we’re offering students and staff an exclusive 20% off sale where you could save up to £59. So if you’re not already a member of Kent Sport, this is a great opportunity to join us.

You can even purchase for that special someone; you simply need their student or staff ID number, found on their Kent One card. The 20% membership discount is available from Monday 10 to Sunday 16 February inclusive. You can view the benefits of membership on the Kent Sport webpages.

Students – prices and how to join:

-Premium Plus £141.60 (was £177)
-Premium £112 (was £140)
-Plus £103.20 (was £129)

Memberships are valid until 31 August 2020. Purchase membership online or at the Sports Centre and The Pavilion receptions.

Staff – prices and how to join:

-Premium Plus £236.80 (was £296)
-Premium £204 (was £255)
-Plus £168 (was £210)

Memberships are valid for one year from purchase date. Purchase at the Sports Centre and The Pavilion receptions. Discount not available on monthly payroll memberships.

If you have any questions about membership at Kent Sport, please email memberships@kent.ac.uk

To stay up-to-date with the latest Kent Sport news, activities and special offers, Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter @UniKentSports.

Alumna Nimasu Namsaren at the BFI Future Film Festival

Congratulations to BA (Hons) in Film alumna Nimasu Namsaren, whose film Mavzhuda has been accepted for the 13th BFI Future Film Festival.

The BFI Future Film Festival, which takes place at BFI Southbank from Thursday 20 February to Sunday 23 February 2020, will feature 50 shorts from emerging UK and international filmmakers age 16-25. The festival also offers a variety of industry workshops, lectures and networking opportunities.

Mavzhuda, which will be shown at the festival on Sunday 23 February, tells the story of the eponymous 12-year-old girl who immigrates to Russia from Uzbekistan with her family. Her new life in St Petersburg is challenging and in order to fit in she starts to forget her own culture and language and loses the connection with her grandmother. One day after school, Mavzhuda ignores her while walking together with other kids, and the pain that she inadvertently brings to the family helps her to find her own place in the hectic world around.

Further information and tickets for the festival can be found here.

Amalia Arvaniti speaks at Oxford University

Amalia Arvaniti, Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English Language and Linguistics, will be giving a talk at Oxford University on Monday 10 February. The talk is titled ‘Intonational phonology in the light of crosslinguistic evidence of variability’.

The talk will report final results from Amalia’s British Academy grant on intonation meaning and its relation to the formal representation of intonation; this research, together with other related work, forms the basis for SPRINT (Speech Prosody in Interaction: The form and function of intonation in human communication) Amalia’s ERC Advanced Grant.

Politics in Wonderland – Templeman exhibition

‘Politics in Wonderland: Sir John Tenniel at 200’ is the theme of a new exhibition in the Templeman Gallery space.

The exhibition, curated by Jo Baines and Tom Kennett from Special Collections & Archives, will run until 20 March. Its launch marks the bicentenary of the birth of illustrator and political cartoonist Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914).

For almost 40 years, Tenniel was the chief political cartoonist for Punch magazine, a Victorian publishing institution, producing classics of the genre such as ‘Dropping the Pilot’. Today, however, Tenniel is chiefly remembered for the illustrations he provided for Lewis Carroll’s ever popular and strange tales Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871).

This exhibition celebrates Tenniel’s contribution to political cartooning in his own work for Punch and in the enduring influence his Alice illustrations have had on subsequent generations of political cartoonists. The exhibition features original cartoon artworks, cuttings and publications from the British Cartoon Archive by cartoonists including Nicholas Garland, Vicky, Strube and E H Shepard.

The exhibition accompanies a production of Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Dream Play, to be performed on Friday 21 February by the University Music department.

First performed in 1886, written by Henry Savile Clarke and with music by Walter Slaughter, the ‘dream play’ was overseen and authorised by Carroll himself, and was the only adaptation to be made with his approval. The production features some of Tenniel’s illustrations projected onto the stage, evoking the original atmosphere of the novel brought so vividly to life by Tenniel’s quirky, characterful images. Tickets are available on the Gulbenkian website.