This Alcohol Awareness Week (16-20 Nov), we are encouraging students to think about their drinking habits and the impact it has on their wellbeing.

Throughout the week, we will be posting daily blog posts on the Student Guide offering helpful advice, including how to keep track of your alcohol-consumption, where to go for support if you feel you need it and ideas for alcohol free events.

Here’s how you can get involved…

Check out the ‘Tapas and Mock-tail’ night – at Woodys in Canterbury on Monday 16 November.

Turning Point will be on the Canterbury campus – providing advice on the raised plinth area next to Blackwell’s on central campus. This will be between 10.00-14.00 on Tuesday 17 November.

Turning Point advisers are also on the Canterbury campus every Thursday during term-time between 13.30 and 17.00 in Keynes College. Find out more by emailing wellbeing@kent.ac.uk or calling 01227 823206. 

Download the Drinkaware app – to track your alcohol-consumption from the app store or Google Play.

This is a joint campaign with Kent Union, GK Unions, Canterbury Christ Church University and Christ Church Student Union.

Mungo’s Massive will be returning this December for one last party of 2015! This spectacular, Christmas themed party in Eliot dining hall is legendary, and like no other Christmas party you will have been to before.

Come dressed in all your festive finery for this glittering event, and dance the night away to a number of contemporary chart hits, old-school club classics, and Christmas tunes.

Join us Friday 11th December, Eliot College Dining Hall, 20.00 until 02.00, plus free entry all night!

Hideous woollen jumpers, tinsel, and baubles are highly encouraged!

Have you ever taken up an instrument and then stopped ?! Did you get to Grade 2, or even 3, and then give up playing ?

Well, if you did then the Unsemble is for you! Next month, as part of Children in Need, we’re inviting any instrumentalists amongst the students, staff and alumni who didn’t progress beyond Grade 3 to come and take up their instrument once more, head to Colyer-Fergusson Hall at lunchtime on Friday 13 November, and join in a scratch group performance of The Pink Panther theme all in a good cause!

Staff members in the department will be borrowing brass instruments for the occasion, and there’s even the promise of a member of the Health and Safety team bringing a sousaphone. What could possibly go wrong ?!

All this musical mayhem will take place from 13.10-13.30 on Friday 13 November; if you don’t have an instrument (or have actually progressed beyond Grade 3!), then you’re welcome to come along and listen; come and find out how we all get on.

Find out more online here http://www.kent.ac.uk/music/whatson.html?tab=november , and join up to the Facebook Event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/635023999972972/

Turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie! The University of Kent would like to invite its students to a Thanksgiving Celebration.

The event will include a traditional three course dinner and festivities. We hope you will all be able to join us to celebrate this joyous holiday with your Kent family and friends.

Book here: http://store.kent.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&deptid=38&catid=140&prodid=1082

For further details email international@kent.ac.uk

Let us know how safe you feel when enjoying nights out in Canterbury and the impact of the Street Marshal patrols.

https://studentcommunityliaison.wufoo.com/forms/w1bpt60c0zt5uk1/

Your feedback will help us evolve the Street Marshal scheme and develop initiatives for the new year.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

How do you feel about part-night street lighting? Do you have any safety concerns when the street lights are switched off?

Kent County Council representatives will be on the Canterbury campus, in the Plaza, on Thursday 12^th November, between 12.00-14.00, to gather your views for a street lighting consultation, so make sure you participate and have your say.

Further details about the consultation can be found here.

Katie Difford, a second year Computing student organised the event. She said, ‘Overall, we learned that irrespective of how we come to work and study in IT, technology will be used in any career path we take and that women are significantly under-represented in these industries. However, we also discussed that women have made huge progress in both work and academia and it is hoped that in 20 years time, women and men will be equal in STEM industries and a ‘Women in Computing’ talk would no longer be necessary.’

Speakers included Anna Jordanous, a lecturer at the School of Computing. Anna talked about her path into the tech industry, completing her undergraduate degree and working in an IT role in retail, before applying for her Master’s and PhD. Katie said; ‘It was interesting to hear as Anna demonstrated the different paths into IT roles in industry as well as academia.’

PhD student, Ayah Helal talked about her decision to come to England from Egypt for her PhD and her hopes for the future. Ayah recalled that in her undergraduate class, women outnumbered men, but further on in their careers, women were impacted by their decisions to get married and have children, as the cultural expectations of them were different.

More at http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/news.html?view=750

The School of Politics and International Relations are pleased to announce that to mark the 70th Anniversary of the UN, the United Nations Association will be holding a Symposium on Britain’s Future in the United Nations.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK Ambassador to the UN 1998-2003 and current Chairman of the UNA, will be discussing ‘The UN at 70: has it run out of steam?’. Sir Jeremy will give an account of the current state of geopolitics, explore the rash of conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and look at the strengths and weaknesses of the UN; explaining why collective international action is even more necessary at this juncture.

The School’s very own Dr Phillip Cunliffe will also be speaking at the event, along with two students from the Model United Nations Society.

The talk take place on Thursday 12th November 2015, at 18.00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 1, however, you are welcome to meet Sir Jeremy over Tea and Coffee from 17.00 in the Keynes Atrium. A drinks reception will follow the discussions.

We look forward to welcoming you to what is sure to be a lively debate.

The Travel Plan Survey has now launched. Please follow the link below to complete the survey by Friday 13 November 2015:

https://www.kent.ac.uk/estates/services/transport/survey/

The Travel Plan Survey aims to find out information relating to how you travel and how you think transport could be improved. It is very important that this survey is completed as the data forms the basis of the University Travel Plans for Canterbury and Medway.

The University Travel Plans are a detailed set of actions with the aim to reduce single car occupancy, where possible, and to provide alternative means of transport to create a greener, healthier environment for staff, students and the local community.

The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete depending on how much information you are willing to share with us. As a thank you for taking the time to complete the survey, you can enter your University of Kent email address to be in with the chance of winning £100 food voucher to be used at catering outlets across the campuses or one of 200 hot drinks vouchers.

Please complete the survey online using the link above. If you or your colleagues are unable to complete the form online, please do not give up as your opinions are important to us. Contact the Transport Team, Estates Department and we will assist you.