Latest information on coronavirus, including updates and FAQs for staff, students and members of the public, is available on our coronavirus website.

The University has not been notified of any confirmed cases of coronavirus amongst our students, staff or visitors.

Our Coronavirus Response Group, led by Professor Christina Hughes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience, will continue to monitor the situation and is following the advice of Government agencies, including Public Health England, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the NHS.

Based on this advice, the University is fully open for business as usual. All our campus facilities and buildings are open.

As you may be aware, the Gulbenkian was informed on Sunday (1 March) that a family member of two cast members of the National Theatre ‘Connections’ production had tested positive for coronavirus. As a result, these cast members were advised to self-isolate as a precaution. The University sought the advice of Public Health England, and advised that no further action was required. The Gulbenkian continues to operate as normal.

For staff that may have travelled to one of the affected areas, or come into contact with someone who has, please follow the Public Heath England guidance. If you are concerned, please ring NHS on 111 or visit 111 online.

All students, staff and visitors in the UK are advised by the NHS to follow basic hygiene good practice in order to prevent the spread of germs and infection. Our coronavirus website includes the latest NHS public health campaign.

If you have any questions or concerns about the virus, please do make use of the NHS 111 service. You can also make use of our recently launched Employment Assistance Programme, which offers easy access to accredited counsellors. You can find out more about the service and how to access it on our Staff News webpages.

We will ensure that further updates on coronavirus and the University’s response are published as soon as possible on our coronavirus website.

Universities UK has announced that staff, students and parents who have queries about coronavirus can contact a new Department for Education helpline: 0800 046 8687 (8am-6pm, Monday-Friday).

If you have any enquiries on our response to coronavirus, or wish to find out more about what the University is doing, please email the Coronavirus Response Group: covid19@kent.ac.uk

In light of the University’s financial situation and the need to make significant savings in our staffing costs this year, we will be reopening the Kent Voluntary Severance Scheme from 9 March – 24 April.  

This Phase Two of the scheme will only be open to specific groups of staff, including those in areas where we know that savings will need to be made. The full Scheme details are available on the HR website, including more detailed information and FAQs. Any staff put at risk of redundancy as a result of subsequent changes under Organising for Success in June 2020 will have a further opportunity to apply for KVSS at that stage. 

We recently held a series of briefing sessions with managers so that they can answer any questions you may have regarding the Scheme. There will also be a series of drop-in sessions for staff where you will be able to discuss this directly with an HR representative – these are divided into hourly slots, and you can just turn up to whichever one suits you: 

• Tuesday 10 March – 14.00, 15.00, and 16.00 in Keynes Seminar Room 2
• Thursday 12 March – 12.00, 13.00 and 14.00 in Keynes Seminar Room 1 
• Wednesday 18 March – 14.00, 15.00 and 16.00 in Grimond Seminar Room 1
• Friday 20 March – 10.30, 11.30 and 12.30 in Kennedy Seminar Room 9
• Tuesday 24 March – 9.30, 10.30 and 11.30 in Darwin Seminar Room 14
• Thursday 26 March – 13.00, 14.00 and 15.00 in Keynes Seminar Room 20
• Wednesday 1 April – 11.00, 12.00 and 13.00, venue TBC
• Friday 3 April – 10.00, 11.00 and 12.00, venue TBC

More details on both the scheme and support available to staff will follow in further communications ahead of the Scheme opening on Monday. 

Organising for Success brings together work that will empower staff to transform our students lives, helping us meet our Kent 2025 strategy and ensure a future we can be proud of.  

As preparations to launch new divisions in September take shape, a number of key proposals will go to the 11 March meeting of Senate – these can be read via the links below, with more information to follow after the meeting itself. 

• Proposed divisional governance, which outlines the high-level academic governance structure within our seven new divisions 
• Senate Effectiveness Review, including proposed updated structures of Senate boards and committees 
• Statement of principles for University QA Structures & Procedures, which sets out the terms under which revised codes of practice will be rewritten 

Other updates across the project: 

Strand 1- Executive Leadership 

Consultation has now finished on the new leadership structure for central professional services, with final changes shared with affected staff shortly. These will also be shared more widely later in the month ahead of the new structure coming into effect in April. 

A well-attended series of ‘Town Hall’ briefing sessions for managers led by Learning & Organisational Development took place throughout February, with personal development programmes continuing for new members of Executive Group as they take ownership of their areas.  

Strand 2 – Establishing academic divisions 

Outlines of academic leadership roles are being presented to Senate for discussion, with the outcomes then shared more broadly across divisions ahead of expressions of interest to key leadership roles.  

Work is also ongoing on division branding and preparation for launch activity ahead of September. 

Strand 3 / 4 – Divisional operations and professional services design 

Follow-up workshops are taking place between Directors of Operations and central professional service leads to support the development of proposed team structures ahead of these being shared with affected staff in June 2020. 

Workshops are also ongoing to map key processes in order to identify and manage potential risk as we transition into the new structure. In doing this, we will also look to identify any areas of improvement we could implement in the short term to help with activity over the summer such as admissions and clearing. 

Strand 5 – Standing down Faculties 

Considerable progress continues, including drafts prepared for a number of key regulations and Codes of Practice to reflect the move from faculties to divisions. These will be refined as necessary following the outcome of Senate.

Latest updates are on the Organising for Success website 

The University of Kent Players are holding auditions for staff for their next radio play, War of the Worlds. The production is a reworking of the 1955 radio broadcast and will be held in Mungos at 20.00 on May 15 & 16.

The players perform two theatrical shows at the Gulbenkian and two radio plays each year. The radio plays bring back the hollywood radio plays of the 1940’s and 50s , recorded for broadcast as live in front of a studio audience.

You don’t have to have experience on the stage, just enthusiasm and commitment. As well as cast members, we are looking for a foley team to create sound effects manually, a technical lead, front of house staff and general help and supporters.

If you are interested in participating in this exciting production, auditions are being held on Monday 9 March, 17.30 in Cornwallis East room 329 and on Tuesday 10 March, 12.30 in Eliot Extension Seminar room 1.

For further information contact the Director, Kevin White

The University of Kent is taking on the Row Britannia challenge of rowing 2020 miles to help raise vital funds for mental health charities as part of Sport Relief.

We’re about to reach a huge milestone in the challenge as we approach a total of one million metres (580 miles) rowed so far! That takes us to almost one third of the huge 3,251,000 metre target. This number has only been possible through your contributions – so thank you to everyone that has taken part so far.

We were visited by Row Britannia on 15 January to officially launch the challenge. University of Kent Honorary Graduate Barry McGuigan MBE and boxers from McGuigan’s Gym gave us a ‘knockout’ start by rowing a mile each, and since then we’ve seen some incredible efforts, with some students and staff rowing 20,000 metres in one session!

On 14 February Kent Sport teams went head-to-head to see how far they could row in just 30 minutes in a team relay row-off. Managing more than 22,000 metres overall, they’re now extending the challenge to you. How far can your team row in 30 minutes? Email sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk to take part now!

Vice-Chancellor Karen Cox, Director of Sport Mel Clewlow, and members of Executive Group (Financial Improvement Officer Peter Pentecost, PA to Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Nicholle Mackenzie and Head of School – School of Sport and Exercise Sciences Dr Claire Peppiatt-Wildman), contributed a combined 20,000 metres when they visited on the 28 February, bringing us to nearly one million metres overall. A fantastic effort and much appreciated mileage!

You’ve still got time to clock your distance and donate to Row Britannia, visit our Just Giving page to donate online or use the collection bucket at the Sports Centre reception. Don’t forget, Sport Relief is on Friday 13 March.

Congratulations to Dr Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Reader in Film and Head of the School of Arts, for having recently having two of her books nominated for awards.

Tamar’s edited collection with Lies Lanckman, Star Attractions: Twentieth-Century Movie Magazines and Global Fandom (University of Iowa Press, 2019) has recently been nominated for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Best Edited Collection Award.

And Tamar’s collection edited with Dr Frances Kamm, Lecturer in Film, Gothic Heroines on Screen (Routledge, 2019) has been nominated for the 2020 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards in the Moving Image award category.

Our congratulations to Tamar and all the contributors to these collection.

University musicians and alumni will be presenting a performance of the ever-popular Peter and the Wolf in the Colyer-Fergusson Hall on Sunday 8 March at 15.00, an hour-long orchestral fairy tale for all the family, however young or old.

The concert will be conducted by Director of Music, Susan Wanless and features William Wollen as the narrator (pictured).

William’s background in physical theatre saw him working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in the 2005 film of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and his creature work features in the 2016 release of major motion picture The Legend of Tarzan (Warner Bros.). As an actor, and actor-musician playing sax and tin whistle, he has performed all over the country at all scales of theatre, and sang the role of the eponymous villain in Cherub Company’s 2001 production of Hans Krasa’s operatic fable Brundibár (written 2 years after Prokofiev’s musical tale).

He is Senior Lecturer in Drama at University of Kent, where he leads on the acting modules. William’s wealth of theatrical and musical expertise will come to the fore as he brings alive the story of Peter and his friends the bird, duck and cat, the grumpy grandfather and the big bad scary wolf!

Tickets (Full £8 / Students & Children £5) are available from the Gulbenkian Tickets & Information, T: 01227 769075. To book online visit the Gulbenkian website.

As part of the University of Kent’s Worldfest celebrations next month, FitnessFest 2020 will offer seven different classes to get you moving. In our annual fitness class shakeup, Kent Sport invites you to sample a unique evening at the tenth annual FitnessFest medley on Monday 9 March.

FitnessFest 2020 kicks off with a free Bollywood Workshop and free Indian Dance workshop at 3pm and 4pm, respectively. Open to all staff and students, join dance company Beeja for something unique! These events are hosted privately, so please book on the Eventbrite website.

At 17.30 we mix things up with FitSteps – an energetic, upbeat dance fitness class featuring all of your favourite strictly dances.

Join us for Cultural Circuits at 18.10 with the effervescent Del. Come dressed up as your favourite country to get into the spirit of Worldfest.

Feel the beat with our next class – Drums Alive® with Jeni at 18.30. Drums Alive® is a program that fosters a healthy balance physically, mentally, emotionally and socially!

Following on at 19.30 John spins us around the globe in an inspiring Spinning class.

To close the evening, epic duo Jeni and Kealy bring you Zumba at 20.30. If you love to move, then this is the perfect class to let loose.

Click ‘Going’ on our Facebook event and tell all your friends about this epic night of fun!

All FitnessFest classes are free for Premium Plus and Premium Members. Plus and Pay to Play pay £2 per class. Booking online is available up to seven days in advance.

If you’re not a member it’s easy to join, ask at the Sports Centre or The Pavilion reception or visit the Kent Sports website.

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