Have you considered cycling to the University? Cycling is a great way to improve your physical and mental health. See our numbered cycle shelter map to find where your nearest cycle shelter is located.

How to gain access to Canterbury lockable cycle shelters

• For access to the Library cycle shelter email TransportTeam@kent.ac.uk with your name, staff or student number, number on back of your Kent One card, type and colour of bike and any identifying features of your bicycle.
• For other lockable cycle shelters come to the Security and Transport Centre with your Kent One card to gain access.

How to gain access to Medway lockable cycle shelters

• For access to the lockable cycle shelter at Medway, email MedwayCardAccess@kent.ac.uk with your name, staff or student number and number on the back of your Kent One card.

From today, 6 March, all staff vacancies will be advertised on a new system and a new look website.

The previous platform, i-Grasp has been replaced with a new system, Stonefish. If you wish to continue to receive job alerts, you must register and create a new account at jobs.kent.ac.uk.

To view and apply for internal only vacancies, you will need to use the Staff Login button which uses your University login details. Internal only vacancies will no longer be visible to external candidates.

This change is the final development in the second phase of Staff Connect, which aims to streamline our HR processes. Since October 2018, this has seen the introduction of training, appraisals (RPD), annual leave and absence management into one system. Although this is part of the Staff Connect project, a separate software solution called Stonefish has been selected as it is more tailored to the HE sector and presents a slicker, more intuitive, user interface which is in line with the Kent brand.

There are a number of benefits to the system:

• Candidates will find the registration and application process easier than i-Grasp.
• Hiring managers will no longer need to complete manual forms. Stonefish will be the single source of information about recruitment and duplication of data entry will be eliminated. An improved shortlisting process will be conducted online along with the ability to have anonymous shortlisting where appropriate (the latter will support the University’s Diversity & Inclusion and Athena SWAN commitments).
• Centrally, having a more uniform automated process will help drive efficiency and consistency and enable the resourcing team to handle high volume recruitment without damaging candidate perceptions or adding to management workloads. It will also provide better and more accessible management information.

Support sessions for all hiring managers are running throughout March and April. There will also be user guides available on the resourcing web pages. Your resourcing contacts will also be available to coach and take you through how to use the system.

If you have any questions, please contact the Resourcing Team at stonefish@kent.ac.uk

Learning and Organisational Development are running an Attendance Management training session at the Canterbury Campus on Thursday 14 March, from 09.30-12.30.

For further information, and to book a place, please visit your Staff Connect Dashboard.

Please book your place by Monday 11 March,12 noon.

There will be a traditional church service for the beginning of Lent, with Communion and ‘Ashing’, in Eliot College Chapel at 12.30pm on Wednesday 6 March.

The 35-minute service will be led by Revd Dr Stephen Laird, Anglican Chaplain. Christian students and staff of all traditions are welcome to attend. [Note: Catholic students can take part and receive the imposition of ashes even if they feel that they are not in a position receive the Sacrament].

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning and Teaching Network session taking place on Wednesday 13 March 2019, from 13.15-14.30 in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury.

Dr Patricia Lewis, Reader in Management, Kent Business School will present this session on ‘Online resources for enhanced interaction’.

The session aims to explore and discuss the process of creating and adapting learning and teaching resources for online, distance learning. We will look at the case study of the KBS undergraduate module ‘Introduction to Management’, which is taught both on campus in Canterbury and online as part of the Higher and Degree Apprenticeship provision.

The development of resources designed to enhance online interaction must focus on providing opportunities and purposeful activities to stimulate student exchanges. This resulted in creating a set of materials that also benefited the face-to-face module, as they offered new opportunities to re-think approaches to content delivery.

The session will be interactive and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss their experience and examples.

If you have not already confirmed your attendance and wish to attend, please complete the  booking form  on our Teaching webpages.

On Monday 11 March, Q-Step at Kent is very pleased to welcome Hind Elhinnawy from the University of Kent to give a pubTALK entitled, ‘Secular Muslim Women’s Activism in the Age of ISIS’.

The talk will take place at The Old Buttermarket, Canterbury, at 19.00 for 19.30.  All are welcome – come and share a drink and join in the discussion!

Experiencing abuse, harassment, and sometimes death threats from ‘radical Islamists’, and accused of collaborating with Western imperialism by importing alien ideas and practices, secular Muslim women activists challenge discriminatory laws within Islamic texts, reject and condemn the jihadist political message, and assert that human rights laws have precedence over religious and cultural considerations.

In this presentation, Hind Elhinnawy will focus on two organisations run by two secular Muslim women activists; “Inspire” a counter-extremism and women’s rights organisation; and “Mother’s Brigade” a French organisation that provides support for traumatised mothers of foreign fighters working to save children from recruitment in extremist and jihadist groups. In doing so, she hopes to unravel many of the tensions, conflicts and ambiguities that mark the nature of activism of Muslim women in the West opposing what they define as “violent Islamist Extremism”.

As Brexit negotiations continue towards the UK leaving the EU on 29 March, we have arranged legal briefings which will be delivered by Kevin Smyth from Kesar & Co Solicitors.

It is hoped that the position of the UK leaving the EU, legislative changes and the impact on EEA citizens and their family members will be clearer by the time of the briefings so that they can be explained and discussed.

Each briefing will include an opportunity for informal discussions with colleagues, HR and Kevin Smyth.

Staff are asked to express an interest in one session only using the Doodle event. As spaces are limited to 50 attendees per session (30 spaces at Medway), staff are advised to submit their interest as soon as possible to secure a place.

Sessions will be held as follows:

• Monday 18 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11.30, Canterbury Campus
• Tuesday 19 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11:30 and 13.30 to 15.00, Canterbury Campus
• Friday 22 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11.30 and 13.30 to 15.00, Canterbury Campus
• Monday 25 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11.30 and 13.30 to 15.00, Canterbury Campus
• Tuesday 26 March 2019 -10.00 to 11.30, Medway Campus

A Brexit Staff Newsletter (February 2019) has also been produced which provides useful legislative and news updates, along with contacts and resources for further information.

Further Brexit information and resources can be found on our Kent and Brexit webpages.

From Monday 11 March 2019,  Postal Services will be operating a new timetable for deliveries and collections at the Canterbury campus.

A copy of the timetable for your building can be found on the Estates Department’s website or by clicking here.

If you have outgoing business post which needs to leave the campus after the scheduled delivery/collection time for your building, Postal Services will still accept it if it is brought to the Post Room between 09.00 and 15.00, Monday to Friday (with the exception of Bank Holidays).

In addition to this, the Postal Counter Service, open to all staff and students, will be changing its opening hours to 13.00 to 14.00, Monday to Friday. General advice and information on sending personal post and packages can be found on the Postal Services web page.

Please contact Estates Customer Services on ext 16666, or by email if you have any questions regarding this.

Estates Customer Services

The Community Scholarships programme, previously known as Medway Community Scholarships, was opened to all students registered at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses in 2018-19, from all stages, disciplines and modes of study. Thus far we have received 100 application pack requests this academic year with the following breakdowns:

Campus
Medway = 16
Canterbury = 77
Not currently registered = 7

Degree level
UG = 60
PG = 33
Not currently registered = 7

Twenty one percent of students who requested the pack submitted an application form for consideration; two of which were successful in the autumn term at obtaining the full reward and two in the spring term, with all four students being based at Canterbury.

The two scholarships awarded in the autumn term were Art at Heart and Music for Change.

Grace Lau, a first year Psychology student manages the project, Art at Heart, a series of ten art and craft workshops for year 3 and 4 pupils at Pilgrim’s Way Primary School with learning difficulties and/or low confidence. The workshop objectives are to improve emotional wellbeing and self-confidence of the pupils through art making, introducing alternative ways for them to express themselves.

Aida Sharaf, a second year Drama and Film student is organising a concert called Music for Change that aims to raise awareness of mental health, domestic abuse, drug abuse and social inequality/discrimination through the lyrics. The hope is the “concert will give a platform of expression to people who are struggling with issues that are not discussed as much as they should be. Many students and young adults struggle with mental health, abuse and social inequality/discrimination but sometimes can feel like they are trapped. I have found that art allows people to be expressive which can be an outlet for a lot of these suppressed issues.” Music for Change is looking for a new venue due to emergency maintenance being carried out at the Gulbenkian Theatre in March 2019.

Our successful scholars in the spring term, thus far, include the projects From the Cubby and the Keynes Sustainability Scholar.

Joe Spence, a postgraduate in his second year studying for a PhD in Social Anthropology, will be using current footage to create an ethnographic film, From the Cubby, that will be screened later this year, to raise awareness of homelessness and resettlement in Canterbury. The film “will explore some of the problems people experience when they become housed, and are faced with the prospect of untangling themselves from social networks associated with homelessness and addiction“, with the aim being to “foster dialogue across organisations, bringing stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds together to discuss the policies and practises associated with homeless resettlement programmes.”

Jane Zhuk, a first year Biochemistry student was awarded the Keynes College Sustainability Scholarship project, the first of its kind, which was initiated by the Master of Keynes College, Chloe Gallien and Emily Mason, with the objective of ​initiating, engaging and supporting sustainability actions at Keynes College.

The Community Scholarships is closed for applications for 2018-19 and will re-open in September 2019 for the academic year 2019-20. Special circumstances may be given for small-scale projects. Please contact Debbie Worthington, Student Activities and Scholarships Officer, communityscholarships@kent.ac.uk for further information. In the meantime you can read about the scholarship on our website: https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentservices/studentlife.html​

Postgraduate students are invited to apply for a workshop on performing multilingualism in practise and performance with French writer, translator, and stage director Anne Berelowitch, as part a research project led by Dr Margherita Laera, from the Department of Drama and Theatre in the School of Arts.

The workshop will run from Monday 8 to Friday 12 July 2019, 10-6pm, at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD), University of London. The workshop will consist of specific improvisation exercises, designed to experience and understand the dramaturgical value of bi/multilingual performance, and the strategies that are needed for multilingual performances for monolingual audiences.

Participants will be invited to co-design and perform multilingual versions of existing scripts: authors and scenes will be chosen in accordance with the group’s linguistic competencies, so that the language mix is as rich and meaningful as possible. The workshop will culminate in a work-in-progress showing on Friday for an invited audience.

The workshop is part of the AHRC-funded project ‘Performing Multilingualism for Monolingual Audiences: Creative Strategies and Practices in Contemporary European Theatre’, for which Margherita is co-PI alongside Professor Peter Boenisch (RCSSD).

Applications are welcome from postgraduate students in acting, directing, dramaturgy and playwriting who have at least two years of training. Performing experience is not necessary, but all participants will be asked to take part in some of the improvisations. Applicants should submit a 1-page CV, indicating their skills and language competencies. Participants must commit to their availability during the entire week of the workshop.

The deadline for applications is 8 March 2019. To apply, please email by Dr Margherita Laera at: M.Laera@kent.ac.uk

A workshop with Greek theatre director Anestis Azas is also planned for April, see call for applications here: https://www.kent.ac.uk/arts/newsandevents/index.html?view=2057