If you are struggling financially and need assistance to get through your Summer term, you might be eligible for additional funding. The University has a variety of support packages specific to your course, location and fee status.

Kent Financial Support Package

The Kent Financial Support Package (KFSP) 2019 is a financial support package of £4,500 for eligible undergraduate students across three stages of full-time study. Eligible students studying a full time four year undergraduate programme with a sandwich year or an integrated Masters year will receive a further cash bursary of £1,500.

New part-time students may be eligible for a pro rata cash bursary in each year of study as part of the KFSP.

Further information on KFSP

Kent Emergency Student Loan

The Kent Emergency Student Loan (KESL) is a loan from the University of up to £240 to help with immediate essential living costs, such as rent, food and travel. This is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate, Home, EU or International, full time or part time students. The loan will need to be paid back.

Further information on KESL

Access to Learning Fund

The Access to Learning Fund (ALF) provides financial assistance to UK students so they can access and remain in Higher Education, particularly those students who need financial help to meet extra costs that cannot be met from other sources of support. The amount will depend on your circumstances and how many applications the fund receives.

Further information on ALF

European Financial Support

The European Financial Support (EFS) fund can provide up to £500 financial support per year to full time non-UK students eligible to pay tuition fees at the ‘EU’ rate experiencing emergency situations or those experiencing a financial deficit over the academic year. The EFS cannot be used for paying tuition fees.

Further information on EFS

International Hardship Fund

The International Hardship Fund (IHF) can provide emergency financial assistance to all full time non-UK students eligible to pay tuition fees at the ‘overseas’ rate. The IHF cannot be used for paying tuition fees.

Further information on IHF

Dr Eleanor Perry, Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of English, has launched a new online creative resource entitled Writing Minds.

Creative writing can engage us in new ways of thinking and reflecting. To assist you in these new discoveries, Eleanor has designed an online resource that aims to guide you into new forms of inspiration drawn from the everyday world around us, as well as from within ourselves. You don’t need creative writing experience to take part; all you need is a desire to get involved.

The Writing Minds project grew out of a series of creative workshops delivered in 2019 for University of Kent School of English students across all year levels who experience barriers to participation linked to mental health. The workshops were designed to be inclusive of all levels of creative ability and to enable students to explore and articulate their identity in an empowering and non-prescriptive way. Participants felt that the workshops and activities allowed them to “blow off creative steam,” in a context where whatever they “chose to make was for fun.”

As a consequence of the success of the workshops of 2019, Writing Minds has now grown into a virtual space where anyone – Kent students, university applicants, and aspiring writers – can participate in, and benefit from, creative and experimental writing exercises that might provide a “pocket to breathe,” or a means to “blow off creative steam.” The online resource is not designed for feedback or grades; the intended outcome is writing for enjoyment and well-being.

​Eleanor will post a new prompt on the website several times per week. The website will also host videos from our Creative Writing Reading Series; and other updates, including showcases of our current students’ creative-critical work.

On the website, you can also find work shared by other participants, and share your own work by emailing it to Eleanor at e.j.perry@kent.ac.uk.

Get involved with Writing Minds.

We hope you, your friends and families are all continuing to keep safe and well and that you managed to have a break over the vacation alongside studying and revising and all your other responsibilities.

As well as marking the start of the Summer Term on Monday, I am writing to let you know that additional information has been added to our student coronavirus webpages, much of it in response to your feedback at our recent WebChats and through your Kent Union representatives.

No-detriment policy explained

In particular, we are aware of how much you want to understand more fully how the no-detriment approach will work. There is a new section entitled ‘No-detriment policy explained’ that we would strongly encourage you to read.

The no-detriment approach assures all students, whether you are an undergraduate or postgraduate, that we will take account of how Covid-19 may be impacting your performance in assessed work.

Whilst further detail is in the FAQs, the key message is that we have a number of elements to the University’s no-detriment policy:

1. A ‘safety net’ calculation based on your performance up to Saturday 14 March. We’ve published more info on this today and will add more detail on the calculation itself very soon.
2. Additional mitigations put in place since Saturday 14 March such as extensions to deadlines and 48hr exam windows
3. Guidance to Boards of Examiners to ensure they can and will take the disruption created by covid-19 into account in agreeing your final marks and/or degree classification.

We have also added new pages for those who have studied abroad this year or plan to next year. There are also new pages for taught postgraduates and research students.

Advice and support

Following the successful launch of the new and informal series of Kent Student WebChats delivered via Zoom earlier in April, we are planning to hold these weekly at 10.00 on Fridays. We look forwarding to engaging with you as part of these chats as they will help us identify how we can best support you.

This forms part of our extension of virtual services and online support. All of the University’s services remain open.

To help you make the most of our services and support, we are redeveloping and refreshing the Student Guide and putting together another issue of our student update e-newsletter to be sent out early next week.

In the mean time you can read about access to online and remote support in our Guide to getting support from the University and Kent Union including Student Support and Wellbeing, the Student Learning Advisory Service, IT Service Desk and both the Kent Union and GK Unions advice centres. We also urge you to make full use of our study guides for online examinations and the Kent Union De-stress zone.

There’s also more information about our continuing services for students who remain on the Canterbury campus and the Kent Union Food Bank and Kent Union Co-op shop also remain open. See their website for the opening times.

University and Kent Union staff and Full-Time Officers continue to remain available to support you throughout this period so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

On behalf of all the staff at the University, Kent Union and Full-Time Officers we wish you all the very best luck with your examinations, dissertations and final year-end assessments.

Best wishes,

Christina and Sasha

Professor Christina Hughes                                          Sasha Langeveldt
Interim Director of Student Services                           Students’ Union President of Kent Union

The School of English have launched a new Creative Writing prompts series for Creative Writing students, applicants and aspiring writers, with the aim to write about self.

How to write memoir? How to write about yourself? How to write into the history we are all living through? Dragan Todorovic, author and lecturer in Creative Writing, is hosting a series of writing challenges with the aim of leading you towards writing a memoir during this time of self-isolation.

Use the Writing Self with Dragan Todorovic videos as a prompt to help you write. New episodes are posted every 3 to 4 days.

Kent Union have launched the De-Stress platform to support students during COVID-19 and the exam period. They have created a website that acts as a hub for the advice, support and activities that are available over the next few weeks.

From simple revision tips to giant games, they are here to help you get through this time so you can fulfil your potential. If you need to talk to someone about your exams, you can contact the Advice Centre who will provide free, confidential and impartial advice.

There are also resources from the Student Learning Advisory Service and Student Support and Learning. The platform is not just work and no play, there are lots of activities for you to get involved with such as quizzes and you can learn a new skill such as knitting and cooking.

Study Plus courses are running online during the summer term.

You can pick up some really useful employability and life skills, or just learn for pleasure with our summer term courses:

Career Toolkit (KE198): learn how to use LinkedIn effectively, and improve your phone and video interview skills

Communicate with Confidence (KE095): learn how to communicate clearly and confidently even when faced with challenging situations 

Digital Photography (KE122): suitable for beginners and those with some experience who want to learn about manual camera settings and improve their photography skills (you will need your own digital SLR or bridge camera)

Genetic Engineering in Dystopian Literature (KE205): this course looks at the way writers have responded to anxieties arising from the discovery of the structure of DNA and cloning.

Introduction to Chinese Taoist Philosophy (KE145): learn about Taoist philosophy from its early roots in Chinese Shamanism, through to the modern day

Meditation for Study, Work and Life (KE097): learn about different ways to meditate, including Mindfulness and Taoist practices.

All Study Plus courses are free of charge and available to all registered University of Kent students.

To read more about the courses before signing up, go to the Study Plus website.

To sign up, go to Workshops in the Student Data System (SDS):

Shortly before each course starts we will email all students who have signed up, with details of how to join the course online.

Shao Yong is currently on her Year in Industry at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society which is playing a critical role in the coronavirus response. Shao is an undergraduate Computer Science student helping to develop web pages providing new content on the specialised care required for COVID-19 patients which will be available to all NHS workers nationally, with extra information for those who may have come out of retirement.

Like many of the students currently on placement as part of their degree, Shao has had to adapt quickly to new ways of working during the pandemic. She said ‘Working from home has its challenges but it’s motivating to know that the project I am contributing to has direct relevance to pharmacists and COVID-19 patients at this time of crisis’.

Katie Van Sanden, Industrial Placement Co-ordinator said ‘We’ve always said that computer science can take you anywhere, and we’re very proud that one of our students is involved in such a key part of the response process. We’d love to hear from any other students whose placements have been adapted to help in the fight against the pandemic.’

Shao’s manager Jonathan Stott, Technical Architect and a Kent Computing Alumnus said: ‘The RPS is playing a critical role in the coronavirus response by advocating for things like PPE for pharmacists and access to NHS shopping time in supermarkets (lots of pharmacists are independent and don’t work for the NHS). We’re also putting out some extra reference material to help pharmacists who may have come out of retirement or haven’t worked on the front-line for a while. Shao is helping with this response, which is great.’

The School of Computing supports over 100 of its students to go on an industrial placement every year. All taught students have the option to add a placement to their degree.