Missed the opportunity to attend the first pre-graduation photobooth? Well if you’re still on campus and missed our last one, then don’t worry, because it’s back again on Wednesday 8 June from 11.00 to 14.30.

Graduating this summer? If you are, we want to give you a unique opportunity to thank, at your graduation, the people who have supported you through your time at Kent.

On Wednesday 8 June, the Congregations team and two University photographers will be on Jarman Plaza. They’ll be there from 11.00–14.30 to take a photo of you and one of our special #KentGrads message boards that you will be able to write a personal message on. The photos we take will then be displayed on plasma screens for your guests to see inside the Cathedral during your graduation ceremony. We will also share them across the University’s Facebook accounts during the week so you can tag yourself and your friends.

This is the first year we have tried this and we think it will be a lovely surprise for your guests. We hope you’ll come along and take part! Please note this event is only for students graduating this July.

Sent in by congregations@kent.ac.uk 

Let us know how you feel about the Canterbury Street Marshal scheme, that has operated in the area around the bottom of the Eliot footpath since arrivals weekend in September 2015.

Take the survey

Your feedback will be used to develop the scheme to best meet students and residents’ needs.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Sent in by Student Services, Contactus@kent.ac.uk, 01227 816156

We’d like to invite you to a workshop to help us shape our strategy for 2016 – 2020.

We’re developing an Information Services strategy to guide the next five years of technology and library services at Kent.

We’re running a series of lively and thought-provoking workshops to help develop it. The next ones coming up are open to:

All students

• Tuesday 14 June 11:00 – 13:00
  Canterbury Campus: Templeman Library West, Floor 1, room A |1 |08
• Book a place

About the workshop

The workshop will be a lively interactive session. We’ll look at how we work with and for students, academics, professional services and partners.

There will be a graphic facilitator on hand to make a visual narrative of the workshop and ‘draw’ out themes from the activities.

You’ll have the chance to:

• say what matters most to you about the future of Information Services
• understand Information Services better

What happens next?

We’ll be engaging with Information Services staff through a departmental meeting where we feed back and discuss workshop findings. We’ll use the results to create a draft strategy document, which we’ll circulate from June.

Would you like to be part of the Gulbenkian Tickets and Information Team?

We are currently collecting CVs with a view to recruiting over the coming months:

We are looking for people with:

• Ticketing or box office experience
• Proven customer service experience (face to face/phones/email)
• Proven use of Word/Excel/Outlook in a work environment
• Experience of working in a busy team
• Flexibility to cover last-minute shifts and Mon-Sun shifts – til late
• Enthusiasm for film, dance and/or theatre
• Great attention to detail.

If you think this sounds like you, please send your CV and short covering email demonstrating your experience to the Tickets and Information Manager, Lianna Macari, L.R.Macari@kent.ac.uk

Sent in by: l.r.macari@kent.ac.uk

Here are the key things you need to remember for exams this year:

• No phones or smart watches
• Remember your Student ID card
• Avoid bringing a bag, if necessary a bag room is located in KS7 (Keynes)
• Still water in clear bottles only
• Clear pencil cases only
• Check your timetable and emails regularly
• Allow time to find your exam number on the seating plan
• Arrive on time
• Visit the toilet before your exam, once you have entered the venue you will not be able to leave until the exam has started

For more information:

• Visit the Exams Office webpages
• Email exams@kent.ac.uk
• Call 01227 764000

Dr Anna Katharina Schaffner, Reader in Comparative Literature and Medical Humanities in the Department of Comparative Literature, will be reading from and signing copies of her debut novel, The Truth about Julia (Allen & Unwin, 2016), at Waterstones St Margaret’s Street store in Canterbury on Thursday 30 June at 18.30, as part of an author’s talk involving three new voices in fiction.

At the event, entitled ‘Three Novelists in a Café’, Anna will be joined by Nadim Safdar talking about his love story Akram’s War (Atlantic Books, 2016) and Dave Sanger on his new book All Their Minds In Tandem (Quercus Books, 2016).

Tickets for this event cost £3, redeemable off the book purchase, and are available from Waterstone’s Canterbury. Further details of the event are available at: https://www.waterstones.com/events/three-novelists-in-a-caf/canterbury-st-margarets-street-15816

Are you interested in championing good community relations and living in St Michaels during 2016-17?

New Student Community Champion roles will be available to students living in the St Michaels area during 2016-17, offering development opportunities for six students.

If you are interested in the role the full job description and details on how to apply by 26 May are available at https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentservices/community/scc.html

If there are any queries please email Contactus@kent.ac.uk

To be included in our next #IamKentSport advert, send us photos of you keeping active at Kent Sport by Monday 23 May. Best photo gets a Kent Sport hoodie. Use the #IamKentSport hashtag when uploading photos to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Students at Kent will soon be benefiting from a major new philanthropically-funded project which unites academic research and expertise in business to inspire, train and equip students to start a business or a social enterprise.

The ASPIRE (Accelerator Space for Innovation and Responsible Enterprise) project will provide brand new dedicated space to help students develop commercial and social enterprise ideas and will facilitate a range of inspiring and interactive sessions from successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and Kent alumni.

The ASPIRE project will be informed by Kent Business School (KBS) research into innovation and entrepreneurship, and by a dedicated Professional Services team at the Business School. It will focus on the acceleration of ideas and the pre-incubation stage of the start-up process. Through ASPIRE activity, students will be inspired to generate ideas, co-create, market test their ideas for viability and link them with successful entrepreneurs including a dedicated Entrepreneur in Residence.

‘As a School that is very much about supporting the next generation of business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs, the ASPIRE project will be a great asset for our students from across the University and to help them in starting their own business. I am delighted that the facility and activity will be housed in the new building where students can have easy access, not just to the ASPIRE support team, but to academic colleagues based at the School who specialise in entrepreneurship and innovation. I am very much looking forward to seeing ASPIRE support future generations of Kent students turn their ideas into reality.’

Martin Meyer
Director, Kent Business School

ASPIRE builds upon the School’s existing Enterprise and Start-Up modules and activity such as the ever-popular annual Business Start-Up Day and Business Start-Up Journey programme.

ASPIRE will be a specially designed workspace and will be based in the new building shared by Kent Business School and the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Actuarial Science.

The ASPIRE Project will be accessible to all student across the University and KBS would be grateful to academic and professional services staff for sharing this story with their students.

For more information about ASPIRE, contact Jack McDonnell, ASPIRE Project Officer on 01227 816492.