Category Archives: Student Guide

The Business Start-up Journey – Medway

Do you dream of being your own boss and starting a business? This Study Plus course will guide you through the process, with lots of fun, practical and interactive workshops along the way.

Run in conjunction with Kent Business School ASPIRE, “The Business Start-up Journey” is 15-week programme starting with a launch event on 24 October. You will also be able to get one-to-one advice on your business idea. Even if you are not planning to start a business yourself, you will learn a lot about the process and gain transferable skills to enhance your employability.

The course is free and any Kent Student can sign up.

To find out more and to sign up in the Student Data System, visit the Study Plus website.

First Study Plus courses for 2019-20

Study Plus workshops are FREE and are open to all registered Kent students. Spaces are available on these exciting autumn term courses:

KE004 Dirty History– for fans of “Game of Thrones”, “The Last Kingdom” and other medieval historical dramas
KE195 King Arthur at the Movies– explore Arthuriana as a film genre in Hollywood and British cinema
KE060 Woodland Coppicing – spend an afternoon in the woods learning about the history and practice of coppicing and have a go at coppicing some trees
KE071 Making a Besom (witch’s broom) for Halloween – learn how to make a broom from scratch using woodland materials
KE114 Woodland crafts- origins and making of Christmas wreaths – embrace the Christmas spirit and make your own Christmas wreath while learning about its pagan origins and Christian history
KE087 Screenwriting for non-writers – if you’ve ever dreamed about writing a screenplay, but don’t know where to start, join this one day workshop to develop your creative ideas, work on characters and develop your writing skills
KE104 Student Mentoring at University – learn how to support your peers at university and gain useful skills which you can apply in the workplace
KE122 Digital Photography- bring your own digital SLR camera to learn how to use its settings and take better pictures
KE196 Photography Editing – improve your photography editing skills and learn how to use Adobe Lightroom software
KE145 Introduction to Chinese Taoist Philosophy – learn about the origins of Taoism and try Tai Chi and meditation
KE146 Harry Potter and the Literary Phenomenon – explore the publishing and marketing phenomenon that is ‘Pottermania’ and its literary influences from the medieval to the modern
KE149 Let’s Talk About Art! – if you’d like to know more about art, this course gives you a chance to learn about a selection of art works from the Renaissance to Postmodernism
KE169 Get Ready for Work– sharpen your writing skills and build a powerful CV – make your CV stand out by learning how to write clearly, concisely and effectively
KE194 The Business Start-up Journey- A 15-week programme starting with a launch event on 23 October. Do you dream of being your own boss and starting a business? This course will guide you through the process, with lots of fun, practical and interactive workshops along the way.

Visit the Study Plus website to view the full range of courses, and find out more – including guidance on how to sign up in SDS.

International Student Experience Fair 2019

*Free Entry for all International & European Students*

Come along to the International Student Experience Fair on Wednesday 9th October from 12:00-14:00 in Darwin Conference Suite, and learn how you can enhance both your studies and employability. Enjoy an afternoon of cake and refreshments, and find out more about the support services available to international students.

Perhaps you need help with your studies, want to find out about opportunities available to you, or you’d like to attend workshops to improve your learning experience? Find out more at the fair! They’ll be a prize draw and the chance to win vouchers.

Remember, there is no need to book this event, just turn up on the day. It is definitely an event not to be missed!

For further information, please email internationalevents@kent.ac.uk.

Free student tickets for Canterbury Cathedral event: 2 Oct

Free student tickets are available for The Most Reverend Michael B Curry In Conversation at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday 2 October.

The Very Reverend Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury, invites you to join him in conversation with The Most Reverend Michael B Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, and well known from his sermon at last year’s Royal Wedding, as they take you on a personal journey of music and faith.

A limited number of free tickets are available for University of Kent students (the standard ticket price is £11). Book your ticket now via this King’s School, Canterbury booking form. The event starts at 19:00 (doors open 18:30).

Medway Sustainable Development Goals collaboration launch

Staff from the University of Kent, University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christchurch University have been developing a pilot programme of actions to highlight the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the Medway Campus. The initiative launches on the 23rd September and across the new academic term aiming to help our staff and students learn about the SDG’s and connect them to their studies, teaching and research.

The University of Kent has signed an agreement to incorporate the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals into its operations and the teaching curriculum it delivers. The University is working to deliver on goals including ending poverty, promoting gender equality, creating sustainable cities and communities, minimising its impact on the environment and offering inclusive and equitable education opportunities for all.

To launch this collaborative project, we are asking for Medway staff and students to tell us about something they are doing that supports the SDGs. This could be selecting a goal that means the most to you and telling us why, or showcasing something you do whether personally or professionally i.e. your research area, projects you are working on, volunteering activities etc.

You can find out more on our new webpage and take a look at examples of where students and staff have already taken part from across the three Universities.

Alternatively, please email sustainability@kent.ac.uk for more information.

Global Officers Leadership Development (GOLD) Programme

We are delighted to invite Kent students to apply for this year’s Global Officers Leadership Development (GOLD) Programme. The programme is a co-curricular venture, designed to fit around your academic studies. It provides a framework of activities for globally-minded undergraduate students at Kent to develop their leadership skills, global citizenship and cultural awareness.

There are 5 components which can be completed throughout the academic year. Benefits include:

• Employability Points awarded per activity

• Certificate of recognition and personal reference from the Dean for Internationalisation

• Recognition on your Higher Education Achievement Report

• Practical event & project management experience

• A chance for you to record your international skill development in the Kent Global Passport.

For further details please see our website.

Deadline to apply is 30th September 2019.

10 Year Test of Time Award shows strength of research at Kent

Matteo Migliavacca and his co-authors have been awarded the 10 Years Test of Time Award by the 2019 ACM International Conference on Distribute and Event-based Systems for their 2009 paper Distributed complex event processing with query rewriting.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), is the leading international professional body for computer science and the Test of Time Award recognizes papers published 10 to 12 years in the past that are deemed to be an outstanding paper whose contents are still a vibrant and useful contribution today.

Matteo said ‘I am very honoured to have received this award. In the work we tackled the problem of optimising complex an event processing system by transforming user-submitted queries in more efficient forms and executing them in distributed fashion. The importance of the work has been recognised by the research community, and is still being cited after ten years from when it was originally published. This shows that optimisation and parallelisation are still key in large-scale data processing frameworks used to process big-data.’

Professor Richard Jones, Head of the School of Computing, commented ‘New research results in computer science are reported at international conferences, which often make awards for the best paper. Conferences reserve their most prestigious awards for research that has stood the test of time and had long-term influence. I am delighted that Matteo Migliavacca and his co-authors, Nicholas Poul Schultz-Møller and Peter R. Pietzuch, have been awarded the 10 Years Test of Time Award. The strength of computer science researchers at Kent is demonstrated by such awards.’

In 2017, Scott Owens and his co-authors also received the Award for the Most Influential Paper from the ACM International Conference on Functional Programming held 10 years before for their paper Ott: Effective Tool Support for the Working Semanticist

Congratulations to them both.

Emeritus Professor John Fitzpatrick OBE to give annual Tucker Millward Guest Lecture at Kent

Emeritus Professor John Fitzpatrick OBE, former Director of Kent Law Clinic, will speak about ‘Democracy and the Law’ for this year’s annual Tucker Millward Guest Lecture at Kent.

The lecture on Thursday 14 November at 6.30pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 is open to all. It is co-hosted by Kent Law Society and Kent Law School and will be preceded by refreshments, served in Grimond Foyer, from 6pm. Attendance is free, but attendees are asked to reserve their place online in advance (for catering purposes).

Professor Fitzpatrick has had a long and distinguished legal career. After obtaining a degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, he worked for 15 years in Community Law Centres in Brixton and Hammersmith (first as a caseworker and later as a solicitor), specialising in employment and immigration and asylum law. He served as a voluntary member on the Management Committee of the Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre from 1992 until 2014, and from 2007 to 2009 was the Chair of the national Law Centres Federation.

He joined Kent Law School in 1991 as a Lecturer and has lectured mainly in the areas of human rights law and public law. An active trade unionist, he served as President of the Kent Branch of the University and Colleges Union for nearly a decade up to 2013.

Professor Fitzpatrick also served as a member of the University’s Council for two years until his retirement in 2018. He was Director of Kent Law Clinic from 1992 until 2018 during which time the Clinic won many prestigious prizes for its work, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2008. Professor Fitzpatrick was awarded an OBE in 2006 for ‘services to the administration of justice’.

Working to ensure dignity and respect for all

Everyone should feel and secure at Kent—we’re here to support you.

Inform Kent (inK) is a new confidential online service to make it easier for you to report incidents of sexual assault/rape, harassment, relationship abuse or hate crime and ensure you have access to the right support.

Or, if you prefer, your report can be anonymous. Information you provide will make our university the safest it can be.

Access inK at: ink.kent.ac.uk/

Find out more about how else we can support you at: kent.ac.uk/studentsupport

Chair of Royal College of GPs to give Foundation Day Lecture

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), will give the University’s annual Foundation Day Lecture on Friday 27 September.

The title of Professor Stokes-Lampard’s lecture is ‘Healthcare Now and For The Future’. It will take place in the Gulbenkian Theatre on the University’s Canterbury campus 6pm – 7pm. It is free and open to all with no booking required but seating will be on a first-come basis.

The Foundation Day Lecture celebrates the University’s many achievements since receiving its Royal Charter in 1965.

Professor Chris Holland, Dean of the new Kent and Medway Medical School, a collaboration between the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University, said: ‘I am delighted that Helen will be giving this year’s lecture. She has been an exciting and inspirational leader and role model for General Practice. She embodies the vision of contemporary General Practice that will encourage our future graduates to consider this route as a career.’

The RCGP is the UK’s largest Medical Royal College, representing over 52,000 family doctors across the UK and internationally. The Chair shapes policy and leads the strategy of the College, working with politicians, policy makers and the media to ensure that the ‘voice’ of general practice and GPs is understood and represented.

During her time as Chair Professor Lampard-Stokes has built alliances and collaborated across the breadth of health and social care with the aim of improving the working life for GP’s and insuring the highest possible standards of care for all.

She is a part-time GP partner at a practice in Staffordshire and a professor in the Medical School at the University of Birmingham (Chair of Undergraduate GP Education).

Prior to training as a GP, she worked in Obstetrics and Gynaecology for several years and this experience shaped her clinical and academic aspirations. She was a personal mentor for doctors in difficulty in the Midlands until 2016, a scheme supported by the West Midlands Deanery and RCGP Midland Faculty.