Category Archives: Student opportunities

Lead Kent nominations: find out more about the roles

Be a part of something big at Kent Union and nominate yourself to Lead Kent. This is all about students working for students to make their university experience the best it can be as an Elected Full-time Officer.

Based in the Mandela Students’ Centre, the Officer team liaises with leaders in the university and higher education across the UK and Europe to make sure that student voices are being heard.

These are full-time, paid positions. You do not need to be a final-year student to run, you can interrupt your studies. Nominations close on the 21 February at midday.

Officer role descriptions

Students’ Union President

Promotes, extends and defends all student rights.
Acts as the lead student voice to Kent Union and the university.
Leads the Officer team.
Leads on campaigns to improve overall student experience.

See Students’ Union President full role description.

Vice-President Postgraduate & International Experience

Leads on issues of PG and international accommodation, wellbeing, education, training and employment.
Leads on supporting European satellite campuses and internalisation work.

See VP Postgraduate and International Experience full role description.

Vice-President Welfare & Community

Represents students on all welfare matters.
Leads on student housing, well-being and EDI, as well as environmental and sustainability work.
Works with liberation networks.

See VP Welfare and Community full role description.

Vice-President Student Engagement

Leads on sports, societies and volunteering groups.
Leads on employability and alumni engagement.
Represents students on all co-curricular activities.
Supports all student groups and runs campaigns.

See VP Student Engagement full role description.

Vice-President Academic Experience

Represents students on all UG education matters.
Supports and empowers academic communities, including societies and student reps.
Leads on the Kent Union education strategy.

See VP Academic Experience full role description.

You’ll be part of a dedicated team

Being an Officer is great fun and incredibly fulfilling but it’s also a lot of hard work.

There are a host of career staff working behind the scenes supporting the Officer team to help on their campaigns, and work towards making their goals a reality. We also offer training sessions and continued growth and development throughout each Officer’s term.

Nominate yourself to Lead Kent.

Find out more on Kent Union’s Lead Kent webpage.

Online mindfulness 5-week course

Are you busy living, working or studying? Do you need to take a moment to rest and recharge?

Dr Adelina Gschwandtner, Economics Lecture and Wellbeing Coordinator, is running the popular 5-week mindfulness course again this year.

There are many benefits associated with mindfulness including:

Reducing stress, anxiety and depression
Improved sleep quality
Improved job performance
Improved emotional and social skills

The course will run every Wednesday in March on zoom, 15:00-16:30. It is open to all students.

You will receive 15 employability points and a certificate after completing the course.

To register, email Adelina A.Gschwandtner@kent.ac.uk

One Year of Right to Food: Free Breakfast Celebration on 26 Feb

Join us for a special FREE breakfast at the Gulbenkian Cafe, from 8:00-10:00, on Mon 26 Feb to celebrate our one-year anniversary as a Right to Food University.

Booking is now closed for the anniversary breakfast.

Why is this Breakfast Special? This breakfast isn’t just about enjoying a tasty meal; it’s a celebration of the community coming together to make a difference. Thanks to the incredible support from our staff, students, alumni, and donors during last year’s Kent Giving Week, we have been able to provide over 10,900 meals, including this free breakfast session, supporting more than 650 students facing financial challenges.

Your Meal, Their Support: The generosity of our donors during Kent Giving Week of last year has made this breakfast possible. It’s a testament to the power of giving and the impact it can have on our community. As you indulge in the complimentary breakfast, we encourage you to consider how you, too, can pay it forward in the spirit of giving.

Right to Food: Our Commitment, Your Nourishment: As we celebrate our one-year commitment to becoming a Right to Food University, this breakfast symbolises our ongoing dedication to tackling food insecurity. We believe that access to nutritious and sustainable food is a fundamental right. Through various initiatives, we are actively working to ensure that no student on our campus faces the challenge of going hungry.

Would you like to study in Seoul, South Korea, this summer?

Information session to study in Dongguk University, Seoul

Representatives from Dongguk University in Seoul will be visiting our Canterbury Campus to promote their amazing Summer school program for 2024.

Dongguk University is situated in the heart of Seoul giving you the chance to live, study and explore this amazing city in Summer 2024. The university offer some amazing unique classes, including Korean Film, K-Pop, Korean Language, Leadership Skills and many more!

Please come along on Monday 5 February, 12:00-13:00 in Keynes Lecture Theatre 2 to meet the Dongguk University team who will be giving an in-person information session about their Summer School opportunity. Find out more and register for the event.

Funding through Go Abroad Bitesize

This opportunity is being offered to Kent students as part of the ‘Go Abroad Bitesize’ initiative. Please see our website for information and the funding available.

Prize Draw Alert: Win 1 of 10 MacBook Air Laptops

We know that acing your studies is helped by having top quality tools at your disposal, so what better way to do this than with a new MacBook Air?

Back by popular demand, our partner Santander Universities, are once again giving away 10 MacBook Air laptops in their latest student prize draw.

Entering the prize draw is quick and easy. Just follow these steps:

Register for Santander Open Academy – a free online learning platform (if you’re not already signed up)
Follow the verification link in your confirmation email
Log into the Open Academy platform and select ‘Get Started’ to complete your entry into the Santander Universities MacBook Air Prize Draw!

All university students can enter. Including undergraduates, postgraduates, part-time and full-time students. You also don’t need to bank with Santander to get involved. So be sure to share with your friends, coursemates and anyone else who could benefit from this opportunity.

Enter by 11pm on 29 February 2024 for your chance to win!

Enter Now

Join Kent’s New Mentoring Scheme: Celebrating Mentoring Month

January marks Mentoring Month, and there’s no better time to invest in your personal and professional growth. If you’re a student looking to make strides in your academic and career goals, sign up for the Career Mentoring Scheme, which partners students with alumni who work in their chosen industry or sector.

By participating in the mentoring scheme, you’ll gain a unique perspective on your chosen profession, develop key skills and knowledge, and prepare for life after graduation.

You can take part in the programme for one or two terms, depending on your needs and availability. The programme is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, with applications accepted throughout the year.

The Career Mentoring Scheme is an excellent opportunity to build your professional network, connect with alumni in your field, and receive valuable advice and guidance. Take advantage of this opportunity to enhance your career journey and apply today!

Kent CyberAnything competition (cash prizes available!)

Together with KMCC (Kent & Medway Cyber Cluster) and KMCS3 (Kent & Medway Cyber Security Student Society), iCSS, is co-organising a CyberAnything Competition.

We increasingly rely upon digital, networked and smart technologies such as mobile devices and the internet to live our lives. Or we can say that we are living in the Internet of Everything (IoE), a cyber-physical world where so many hardware devices, software systems, physical things, systems and people are now interconnected. However, the cyber elements of our lives and how security, privacy and safety of such elements affect our lives are not always visible or overlooked, and sometimes intentionally concealed. They are often so entrenched in our way of being that we overlook our reliance upon them until they stop functioning, e.g., when a power cut, server downtime or an empty battery hits us.

How to enter

This competition welcomes anything that is cyber-related in our daily lives. You can use your camera or other image-capturing device to capture a moment as a photo or a short video, or create a drawing, or prepare an infographic such as a flyer or a PowerPoint slide, or write an essay or even a poem, or make a 3-D printed object or a hand-crafted artefact, etc., which can tell a story about living, learning and connecting in the cyber or cyber-physical world in the past, at present, and/or in the future. You are also welcome to try generative AI for creating your submission, but in this case please describe which generative AI tool(s) were used and how you used it/them, e.g., prompt(s) you used to create the submission. Download competition flyer.

The deadline for submission is Friday 1 March 2024 23:59. We plan to announce the prize winners in late March 2024.

Who can enter

Submitted artefacts will be judged anonymously by a judging panel for the following prizes in the following four categories:

Current staff of the University of Kent
Current students of the University of Kent
Alumni of the University of Kent, and
Other UK residents who have never been affiliated with the University of Kent.

Cash prizes

4 Best Overall Prizes (one per category, £80 Amazon e-voucher per prize),
4 Most Creative Prizes (one per category, £80 Amazon e-voucher per prize), and
8 Runner-Up Prizes (two per category; £20 Amazon e-voucher per prize).

Find out more and submit your entry.

Apply now for i-teams

i-teams is an innovative programme that allows Kent students to work in interdisciplinary teams, solving real-world problems and gaining valuable experience in a variety of fields.

Whether your passion lies in sustainability, healthcare, or technology, i-teams has a project for you. Work alongside mentors from industry and academia to develop your skills and knowledge in your chosen area. Not only will you gain valuable experience, but you will also have the opportunity to make a difference in the world.

But don’t just take our word for it. Previous i-teams participants have gone on to launch their own successful startups, work for top companies, and even pursue further education in their chosen field. The skills and experience gained through i-teams have proven invaluable in their future careers.

So what are you waiting for? Join the i-teams programme and start making an impact today! Visit the our careers webpages to learn more and apply by 29 January 2024.

In your final year? Here’s why you should fill in the NSS

The National Student Survey (NSS) is now open at Kent and final year undergraduate students are invited to complete it.

The NSS is your chance to have your say on what you liked or didn’t like about studying at Kent. Take the NSS now.

The NSS: what you need to know

📣The University and Kent Union value your feedback and the NSS is one of the most powerful ways to have your say. See the Your Uni Your Say webpages for ways we have acted on your feedback.

📧If you are eligible, Ipsos will email you on Thursday 25 January and will continue to email, text and call you until you complete it (so we recommend you do it early).

🔒The survey is completely anonymous and confidential. It is run by Ipsos, an independent research agency.

🎓 NSS is mainly open to final year undergraduates.

🕕The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. However, please take the time to consider your answers and reflect on your whole experience at Kent.

Laptop loans service expanded and enhanced

12 hour laptop loans now available to use on campus.

You can now borrow all Templeman Library laptops for up to 12 hours; and laptops from the self-service cabinet in the Library Café can be borrowed and used across the Canterbury campus. Chargers are available to borrow from the Welcome Desk, along with laptop bags if you’re using it outside the Library.

We’ve extended the loan period and expanded the places where the laptops can be used in response to student feedback, enhancing this popular service to better support your study needs #YourUniYourSay

Campus laptops: for use across campus

Laptops from the self-service cabinet in the Library Café can be borrowed and used across the Canterbury campus.

Library laptops: for Library use only

Laptops from the self-service cabinet on Floor 2, Block C, are restricted for use in the Templeman Library only.

Loan chargers and laptop bags

Chargers are available for loan from the Welcome Desk, along with laptop bags if you’re using it outside the Library.

How loan laptops work

Borrow loan laptops:
- For campus use: from laptop cabinet in the Café area (Ground floor, Block B)
- For Library use only: from laptop cabinet on Floor 2, Block C.
Use it: for up to 12 hours – the laptop works with wired and Bluetooth headphones.
- Need a charger or laptop bag? Pick one up from the Welcome Desk.
Save your files: to your University OneDrive so you can easily access them.
Return it: take it back to the cabinet and plug it in. If you have borrowed a charger and / or laptop bag as well, please return them to the Welcome Desk.

Any problems? Please take the laptop to IT & Library Support in Nexus, Ground Floor, Block D, so we can sort it out.

What’s included

All Office 365 tools
Internet access and webcam
Accessibility apps
Citation tools

What’s not provided

Course-specific software
Laptop accessories (eg mouse)
Speakers (they’re disabled)

The small print

Laptops loaned from the Café self-service cabinet can be used across the Canterbury campus.
Laptops loaned from the cabinet on Floor 2 are still restricted for use in the Templeman Library only.
If you don’t return the laptop at the end of the 12 hour loan period, there won’t be a fine – but you won’t be able to borrow any other items until you do!
If you lose the laptop, we will charge you for the replacement costs.

Please follow our laptop loans conditions of use and Library and IT regulations when using them.

Find out more

See our Laptop loans guide.