A special event on Wednesday 2 October will mark the launch of a new BAME/Staff of Colour Network and the Kaleidoscope Network set up by the Centre for Sexuality, Race & Gender Justice (SeRGJ).

Among the aims of the BAME/Staff of Colour Network are to:

• support the University in meeting its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity
• raise awareness of the broad range of knowledge, skills, expertise and contributions of BAME staff/staff of colour
• provide a forum for coaching, mentoring and advocacy for BAME staff/staff of colour
• raise awareness of discrimination, harassment, micro-aggressions, pay and/or promotions gaps and other disadvantage experienced by BAME staff/staff of colour
• work in collaboration with the University to address inequalities.

The Kaleidoscope Network (KN) is a collective of students and staff of colour and ‘allies’ hosted by the Kent Law School Centre for Sexuality, Race & Gender Justice (SeRGJ). The idea to set up the KN originated from students involved in the Decolonising the Curriculum Project led by Dr Suhraiya Jivraj as part of its manifesto which was launched at a University conference earlier this year. The KN is committed to implementing the manifesto at Kent and staff and students are welcome to join by pledging to its principles

The launch event on Wednesday 2 October takes place from 17.00-20.00 in the Moot Chamber, Widoger Building on Canterbury campus. Refreshments will be available from 17.00.

The keynote address will be given by Professor Heidi Safia Mirza, Emeritus Professor in Equalities Studies, UCL Institute of Education and Visiting Professor of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. She is known for her pioneering intersectional research on race, gender and identity in education and has an international reputation for championing equality and human rights for Black and Muslim women through educational reform.

The event is open to BAME staff and others interested in becoming members of the Kaleidoscope Network which is open to Kent staff and students. You can book your place via Eventbrite.

We are pleased to announce that following assessments conducted by both the REF 2021 Equality and Diversity Panel (EDAP) and Research England, it has been confirmed that Kent’s Code of Practice meets the published requirements as set out in the REF 2021 COP Guidance (REF 2019/03).

The Code of Practice (COP) is a vital document for the University’s REF 2021 submission and is a document all institutions are required to submit.  It outlines the process of defining researchers, selecting outputs and demonstrating support for equality and diversity in the REF.

Kent’s COP is aligned with our commitment to the creation and support of a balanced, inclusive and diverse academic community, and reflects the four expected principles: transparency, consistency, accountability and inclusivity.

Now Kent’s COP has been approved, we must adhere to the approaches and processes that have been outlined and use it to inform key decisions for our REF2021 submission.

Please visit the REF2021 Code of Practice webpage for full details.

The Kent Sport Physiotherapy Clinic will be running a discount on massages from 23 September to 29 November to help kick-start your academic year!

Massages are being offered at £19 for 30 minutes – and that’s the same great price regardless of whether you’re a Kent Sport member or not. We have two new fully qualified massage therapists who have recently joined us, Millie Knight and Mark Allen! This means we have even more availability!

To book an appointment, please visit the reception desk inside the fitness suite at the sports centre, call the clinic staff on 01227 824375 or email physio@kent.ac.uk.

We look forward to seeing you!

The University is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Christina Hughes as interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience) and Professor Georgina Randsley de Moura as interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Strategy, Planning and Performance).

Christina brings extensive leadership experience to the post having spent three years as Provost at Sheffield Hallam University and four years Pro-Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at the University of Warwick. She is a member of the TEF Subject Panel (Social Sciences) and is Visiting Professor at the University of Coventry’s Centre for Global Learning Equity and Attainment. Christina will be joining the University on 14 October 2019 and will build on the good work already underway thanks to Professor April McMahon who starts her new role at Manchester University in a few weeks’ time.

Georgina has made a significant contribution to the strategic direction of the University, especially in the growth and development of Psychology’s profile and positioning and nationally through leadership roles in the British Psychological Society. Georgina also has extensive cross-institutional experience across a range of projects in education, research, EDI, and organisational change. Georgina will start her new role on 1 October 2019 and interim arrangements will be made to cover her current commitments as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Both will be members of the University’s Executive Group.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Chris Deacy, Head of the Department of Religious Studies interviews Sarah Blackman (nee Harden) who graduated in Religious Studies at Kent in 2016.

Sarah tells us about her ambition to become a primary school teacher and what initially stopped her from realizing her dreams. She also recounts childhood memories, listening to Mark Goodier counting down the charts on a Sunday evening, what happened when S Club 7 beat Madonna to be number 1, why her RE supply teacher was such an inspiration, why writing essays at university entailed ‘blood, sweat and tears’, and her obsession with ‘Friends’ and ‘Toy Story’. Sarah then goes on to talk about how children today are more aware than ever of changes in the environment, and the way we tend to filter out more negative experiences.

The three Universities at Medway came together once again on 12 September to celebrate learning and teaching innovation and pedagogic research at the annual Medway Festival of Learning and Teaching. 127 staff and students from the Universities of Kent, Greenwich, Canterbury Christ Church University and colleagues from partner colleges met to reflect on this year’s theme: “Developing a culture of student engagement”.

The keynote speech was delivered by Professor Colin Bryson and Asia Scholefield, from Newcastle University, which focused on “Where are we and where are we going with student engagement?” A variety of workshops and presentations followed, which demonstrated the diversity of innovative practices undertaken by staff in partnership with their students, at the universities and colleges present.

Feedback about the Festival was on the whole very positive, with comments such as ‘a very well spent day’, ‘the keynote was very informative, also the breakout sessions’, ‘great way to make contact with colleagues from other institutions, with shared interests’. Despite the hot and packed breakout rooms, delegates enjoyed ‘hearing about colleagues’ projects and research’, ‘the good variety of topics’ and ‘student involvement.’

Some slides used during the conference will be published on the Festival website.

The call for papers for Medway Festival of Learning and Teaching 2020 will be out in early 2020 and we welcome any suggestions for a theme for next year.

The Medway Festival Organising Team (CCCU, University of Greenwich and University of Kent)

The University of Kent Players are back with another radio play extravaganza!  We will be taking a trip down the rabbit hole with Alice in Wonderland to be performed on 29 and 30 November 2019.

Auditions will be held on:

• Tuesday 24 September 12.30-14.00 in CE329
• Thursday 26 September 17.30-19.30pm in CE329 (arrive from 17.00 for a 17.30 start)

It would be great if you’re able to attend both audition dates, but this is not essential. The audition process itself is fairly informal, with a chance to meet everyone and ask questions before the audition begins.  We will ease you into the audition with a couple of warm up exercises, before breaking into small groups to work on different sections of the script which will then be performed to the audition panel and the other auditionees.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch at players@kent.ac.uk

There are a number of acting and non-acting roles available – we need everyone from cast to tech to front of house.

The Players are a super friendly group with diverse levels of experience, so everyone is welcome!

And if you’re new to The Players, or generally feeling a little unsure, then we’d be glad to meet up over a coffee and help put you at ease.

The School of Computing hosted the first UK and Ireland computing education conference (UKICER) on 5 and 6 September. The intention is for this to become the first of a series of annual conferences to create a community of computing education research within the two countries.

Conference Chair Janet Carter said: ‘The atmosphere was relaxed and supportive with presenters talking on a range of themes including transitions to higher education, assessment, environments and context.’

The University also hosted the ACM-W Inspire 2019 workshop. The theme was “Rising Together” with exciting talks on supporting, mentoring and advocating women to achieve their full potential in both tech industry and academia.

Read more on the School of Computing webpages.

The University has joined forces with other public sector bodies to ensure Kent becomes a digitally inclusive county.

The Kent Digital Accessibility Working Group – made up of the University and its ‘Kent Connect’ partners including local authorities, police and fire – aims to meet rules outlined in the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (2018).

Members of the group from across the University are already working on a training plan for all organisations involved, as well as adding to the team of experienced accessibility auditors across the county to ensure that all Kent websites are accessible to all.

The Kent Digital Accessibility Working Group are also taking steps to ensure the University’s own digital content is fully accessible. The aim is to improve access for all and this work compliments the Kent Inclusive Practices (KIPs) that the University has already endorsed.

In addition, the new web template – Site Editor – is designed to be highly accessible, and digital guidelines are being shared with schools and departments to help prepare content for those webpages. i.e a review current content and removal of obsolete information

The following principles can and should be applied to all digital material at Kent to help ensure a fully inclusive environment. They include:

• Keep content simple
• Keep it efficient
• Make sure the text is accessible to other applications
• Structure your text with style sheets/semantic tags
• Ensure text can be personalised and reflows when magnified
• Use short image descriptions known as alt-tags
• Test it!

You can see the digital guidelines for more detailed support and information. The working group also have created a Digital Accessibility e-learning package in Moodle to give more detail about the regulations and how they will be rolled out across the University of Kent.

Chris Morrison will be running another Copyright the Card Game session, in the Templeman Library, at 10am on Tuesday 17 September.

The game allows participants to understand the ways in which copyright law impacts on the day to day workings of an educational institution, looking at teaching, research and engagement. It is appropriate for all staff who work with copyright material (so pretty much anyone who uses a computer) and participants will learn about:

•  the things that copyright protects,
•  the activities that are restricted by copyright
• when licences provide permission to use copyright content
• when fair dealing exceptions apply to those activities.

Places can be booked via staff connect.