Remember to take an acceptable form of photo ID with you when you head to your polling station on Thursday to vote in the local elections.
Polling stations will be open from 7:00-22:00 on Thursday 4 May. Find your polling station.
If you are not sure if you are registered to vote in Canterbury, you can contact Canterbury City Council on 01227 862007 or email electoral.services@canterbury.gov.uk. Or for Medway Council, call 01634 333 333 or email electoralservices@medway.gov.uk.
The Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty The Queen Consort will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey.
To celebrate we are doing a number of things on campus including:
Canterbury
Medway
We hope to see you at the celebrations!
We are deeply saddened to hear about the fighting in Sudan. Our thoughts are with all our students, staff, alumni, and anyone who is affected by this conflict.
We are in the process of contacting our students and staff from Sudan and are taking immediate steps to support these individuals. The UK Government advice for anyone concerned about relatives or friends should call the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) on 020 7008 5000.
Support for students:
Support for staff:
We’re taking part in No Mow May this year. This means central lawns that would normally be cut are going to be left to grow throughout May. Each year we leave the grasslands surrounding our campuses but this time we are including the central lawns.
No Mow May is Plantlife’s annual campaign calling on gardeners and landowners to leave the mowers in the shed and allow flowers to grow. May is a crucial month for flowering plants allowing them to get established and provide nectar for pollinators and other invertebrates. Just 8 dandelion flowers are enough to produce the nectar sugar needed by a bumblebee each day.
Over the month central campus will start to look very different and the Conservation Society will be carrying out surveys to see what changes are taking place. We will be putting signs across campus that will point out where lawns are being left for nature and No Mow May. A big thank you to the Graphic Design students that created the No Mow May signs you will see on campus, and to the Conservation Society who will be surveying our wilder lawns.
This project forms part of the University’s Biodiversity Strategy and is being led on by the Landscape and Grounds team and the Sustainability Team. We hope that we can learn a lot about the difference it makes to our invertebrates, birds and small mammals on campus. We also want to hear how this project impacts on the human community on campus. We would love to hear your feedback through the feedback form we have set up on our website, where you can also share any wildlife spots of your own.
If you have any questions please contact sustainability@kent.ac.uk, and please feel free to share any photos you take throughout the month of our wilder lawns.
A Climate Café is a safe space to chat with others who are feeling anxious, sad, or frustrated about climate change.
As part of our commitment to a sustainable future, we are offering free training on how to facilitate Climate Cafe discussion groups. This is a great opportunity to take a proactive stance towards climate anxiety, meet like-minded individuals, and develop your communication skills.
The training will take place in June online so you can take part wherever you are.
Register your interest by emailing sustainability@kent.ac.uk.
In Kent as in the rest of the UK, surplus fresh produce is left in the field post-harvest or not harvested due to staff, quality or price constraints. Nationally, pre-farm gate food waste has been estimated to be 1.6 million tonnes annually.
Gleaning is the process of picking this surplus food and veg from farms that would otherwise go to waste, and redistributing it to those who need it.
The cost-of-living crisis has increased the pressure on food banks and food redistribution organisations with many not including fresh produce in their offer. Food offered to those who need it is often just ambient and not always healthy.
Many students have expressed their concern about the increased cost-of-living, and Kent Union has seen an increase in the number of students accessing Campus Pantry, our on-campus food bank.
Farmers in Kent are keen to work more closely with the community, sharing the realities of farming but also promoting work opportunities in the agri sector.
With all this in mind, membership organisation for local food and drink businesses, Produced in Kent, and the University of Kent have decided to set up a gleaning group with student and staff volunteers from the university. The gleaning group will work together with growers in Kent, picking surplus fresh produce left on the fields, and redistributing this to charities, community groups and food banks in the Canterbury area.
Earth Day is on the 22 April and marks a day of collective action and global awareness on the importance of protecting our planet. At the Kent, we take our responsibility towards tackling climate change seriously and are committed to a sustainable future for generations to come. Here’s what’s been going on at Kent in the past year, and some ways you can get involved in sustainability initiatives.
Kent has made a lot of progress towards sustainability in the past year. From reducing carbon emissions to promoting biodiversity and sustainable food systems, we have achieved significant milestones in various areas. Here are some of the highlights from the past year:
There are lots of ways for students and staff to get involved in our sustainability initiatives.
The Kent Community Oasis Garden is an extraordinary collaboration between the University and East Kent Mind, supporting sustainability and good mental health. This year, the garden has expanded its growing space, seen a large rise in its number of volunteers, and been used as a living lab site for the School of Architecture. Get involved by coming along to one of the open gardening sessions on Wednesdays and Fridays, 11:00-14:00
A Climate Café is a safe space to chat with others who are feeling anxious, sad, or frustrated about climate change. As part of our commitment to a sustainable future, we are offering free training on how to facilitate Climate Cafe discussion groups. This is a great opportunity to take a proactive stance towards climate anxiety, meet like-minded individuals, and develop your communication skills.
The training will take place in June. Register your interest by emailing sustainability@kent.ac.uk.
Join Kent’s BioBlitz on 20 May 2023, to record as many living species as possible on the Canterbury campus. The event is open to everyone, regardless of experience. Participants can take part in numerous sessions throughout the day, collaborating with local conservation and wildlife organizations. Find out more about the BioBlitz and how you can get involved.
Kent and Produced in Kent have established a ‘gleaning’ group in Kent to collect surplus produce from local farms and distribute it to charities, community groups, and food banks in the Canterbury area. If you are interested in finding out more, you can attend an information session on Tuesday 25 April at Woody’s on Canterbury campus to learn more about becoming a volunteer with the Canterbury Gleaning Collective.
Let’s continue to work towards a sustainable future, and make every day Earth Day.
The UCU’s national marking and assessment boycott begins today (20 April). It is disappointing that this action is going ahead, however we have plans in place to make sure this does not get in the way of you finishing the year as normal. As always, we will do everything we can to limit the impact this has on your studies.
What does a marking and assessment boycott mean?
Academic colleagues who are taking part in the action may not mark coursework or exams while the dispute is taking place. However, it is important to stress that not all staff are UCU members and not all UCU members take part in industrial action.
While staff do not have to let us know if they are taking industrial action, we know the impact at Kent will vary greatly across areas. It is important you continue submitting assignments as usual and sit your exams in the Summer Term. We will do all we can to make sure your marks are turned around in appropriate timeframes.
Ensuring you can progress or finish your studies
I understand that this is a worrying time, but I want to reassure you that we have specific measures in place to make sure you can progress or finish your studies on time. Graduation ceremonies will also go ahead as planned.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email industrialaction@kent.ac.uk. You can also see further information and support on the industrial action website.
Besides revising the course content itself, some of the pressure of exams can come from uncertainty of what’s allowed and what’s expected on the day. Here’s some useful info to take the unknown out of the practical side of exams at Kent.
For many, this summer’s exams will be the first you’ve sat in person at the Kent. Even if you have sat exams here before, there’ll be a few changes this time around.
Revising
Who better to ask for revision tips than the students here at Kent? So we wandered around campus to ask some of you! Here are some of those tips:
Check out the video on Instagram.
Some practical exams info
Whether or not you’ve sat in-person exams at Kent before, here’s some information that might come in handy:
It’s worth heading over to the Exams webpages to find out more, and there’s lots of support for your wellbeing available too.
Written by Charlie, Student Services, 12/04/2023.
We’re happy to share that a new food vendor will be serving our Medway campus.
Yeti’s Kitchen will serve authentic Nigerian food from 12:00 – 17:00, every Monday.
They will be based down the steps of the Medway Building, by the Cow-Elephant.
