The School of biosciences warmly invites you to our public lecture “How your food choices will help you age better and change the planet!” with Dr Cassandra Coburn.

Dr Coburn is the author of Enough: How your food choices will save the planet, which is an excellent read on how we can age better and save the planet by taking charge and making simple dietary choices. Blackwells book store on campus will be stocking the book at a discounted price for £9.99.

Dr Coburn is also the editor in chief of ‘the Lancet Healthy Longevity’.

This lecture is part of a scientific conference, “Nutrition and the Biology of Ageing,” running at the University of Kent between 12-14^th September 2022. The event is organised by Dr Jenny Tullet and Dr Marina Ezcurra.

The lecture will take place in Sibson Lecture Theatre on Monday 12 September from 17.00 – 18.00. Please use this link to register your interest.

Article from the HR Department

Over the last 14 months, colleagues in HR and Finance have partnered to embark on an exciting project to improve the University’s staff establishment controls. The project was initiated in November 2021 with the aim to implement a budgeted HR establishment system to effectively manage our people resources and provide improved correlation between HR and Finance data with a more accessible view of the budgeted staffing establishment. This will be delivered as enhanced reporting within the Staff Connect system.

The system will enable managers across the organisation to gain a better insight into which posts are occupied, vacant or being actively recruited to at a single source, as well as showing how these fit within the total staffing budget allocated to the Division / Department, giving greater financial management and structure control to devolved Finance and HR teams. This will enable approval of new posts or changes to be devolved out to the local management teams, with the aim of simplifying the recruitment approvals process.

Following a lot of hard work building, validating, and completing initial testing of the system, we are now pleased to announce the soft launch of the enhanced reporting capability within Staff Connect. This comes with a host of new features, benefits, improved processes, and ways of working.

Soft launch commences from beginning of September and will last for a few months, during which appropriate training and support will be given to relevant managers and staff on how to use the system. The aim is to roll out the system across all areas of the University during this soft launch period, so please do not worry if you don’t hear from the central teams straight away.

Follow-up communications will be circulated imminently to the relevant teams that manage staff budgets and establishments, including user guides for the new system. Staff from the Management Accounts team will be in touch to arrange training sessions.

Our Staff Conference this year (15-16 September) covers a lot of exciting topics and lying at the heart of the programme is health and wellbeing. Throughout the conference and in the days building up to it, there are a wide range of activities that will be good for your mind and soul as well as your body.

For all of our wellbeing activities and events take look at our daily sessions, but for now here’s a sneak peek of what we have in store…

Free classes at Kent Sport

From Monday 12 – Thursday 15 September, Kent Sport is offering a range of classes including Pilates and Express Spinning for you to enjoy. While some of the sessions have proven to be very popular, there are still classes with availability so book your spot via this booking form.

Health checks and monitoring

As well as taking you on a tour of the facilities of The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences (SSES), on the Monday (12) and Wednesday (14) you’ll be able to book a slot to receive some basic health tests i.e., blood pressure and BMI checks. To book your slot please email Lucy Hale.

On Tuesday 15 September and at our Medway campus book an appointment with our Occupational Health Department to get a blood pressure check.

See the schedule for more details

Wellbeing activities at Medway

It’s Wellbeing Wednesday on the 14 September as our Medway campus runs several activities including sitting back and relaxing in an acupuncture chair massage. For details read our story Staff Conference: At Medway.

Dance fitness session

Start your Friday (16 September) by being active and join Lizzie Holland for a fun dance class. Whether you’re a beginner or more experienced, this 45-minute session will get you moving as you learn a low-impact dance routine.

See the schedule for more details

How our Employee Assistance Programme can help you

This online session on the Friday, is a great opportunity for you to hear from the experts at CareFirst (EAP) on what they can do to support you no matter what your need is. Whether you need information or have questions regarding issues such as stress, or nutrition, Care first online wellbeing can provide the answer.

See the schedule for more details

Financial wellbeing

On the Friday qualified and experienced Certified Money Coaches will be leading an online session that can help us to understand our relationship with money and advise on strategies and tactics to improve our habits and ultimately improve our financial wellbeing.

See the schedule for more details

Check out the daily programmes for the Staff Conference 2022.

Please join us for a Celebration of Life at The Gulbenkian on 10 September at 14:00, in loving memory of Professor Clive Hilborne Church.

Clive joined Kent from the Lancaster University in 1981 as Senior Lecturer in European Studies, affiliated with the then European Studies unit in the School of European Culture and Languages. He was promoted to a professorship in 1992 and became a member of the Department (now School) of Politics and International Relations in 1996. Upon his retirement in 2003, he was appointed Emeritus Professor. Continue reading Clive’s obituary.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to joannabennett78@virginmedia.com.

As we emerge from the pandemic, how do we bring people together again through events that are sustainable? Join Kent Sustainability Champions for the launch of their Sustainable Events Guide, which will give you top tips to help you deliver a more successful and sustainable event.

Images from left: Emma Marku, Kelda McCabe, Emily Collins

Between them, Emma Marku (Internationalisation Officer), Kelda McCabe (Business Information Officer) and Emily Collins (External Relations and Events Co-ordinator) have a wealth of experience of organising events at the University of Kent. They know that sustainability isn’t always at the top of the agenda or easy to achieve, so have created a short guide to help you navigate the pitfalls of event management and provide the necessary information to help you make more sustainable choices along the way.

At the launch of the guide on Thursday 15 September, hosted as part of the Kent Staff Conference, the team will give you the opportunity to plan and discuss your next event with sustainability in mind. They’ll give you the tools you need to justify your sustainable choices to colleagues and signpost more eco-friendly alternatives when it comes to marketing, catering and delivering your event.

Whether you’re well-versed in event planning, it’s new to your role or you have an interest in influencing sustainability as an attendee, this event will offer something for you.

How to deliver great and sustainable events will take place at 13:50-14:30 on 15 September in the Templeman Seminar Room 1. You do not need to register for the event but we recommend you add the event to your Outlook Calendar using this link.

We have previously communicated that SharePoint 2013 will be set to ‘read only’ on 1 September 2022.

Whilst this has already been done for some sites, we have had to delay the ‘read only’ date for all SharePoint 2013 sites to 1 October 2022.

Please ensure all content is moved away from SharePoint 2013 by 1 October 2022.

SharePoint 2013 will be permanently retired after 31 December 2022.

What does this include?

• All SharePoint 2013 sites, which includes anything beginning with a URL sharepoint.kent.ac.uk.
• SharePoint 2013 ‘mysites’, which begin with the URL mysite.sharepoint.kent.ac.uk/ and can be accessed by clicking ‘OneDrive’ in the top right corner of SharePoint 2013.

For further help:

There is lots of useful advice on the KentNet Support site.

If you are not aware of the process to move content or where content should be moved to please send your enquiry to Izzy Linthwaite, Digital Collaborative Services Lead, Information Services.

As part of this year’s Staff Conference 2022 we have a variety of exciting wellbeing activities taking place on our Medway Campus.

For Tuesday 13 September, there will be an all-day health monitoring session at Medway, where our Occupational Health Department are offering staff blood pressure checks in Room M04. If you would like an appointment, please email occupationalhealth@kent.ac.uk

On Wednesday 14 September, before you join colleagues at the staff barbecue (between 12.00-14.00) for a fun afternoon of live music, food and drink, there are a number of staff wellbeing activities for you to sign up to.

All these sessions will be taking place on our Medway campus, so take a look at the schedule and come along!

09.30 – 16.00 – Acupressure chair massage – with Rebecca Farrell

Rebecca is the owner of Centre Anahata in Chatham and a member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists. currently the only practitioner trained to offer Ayurvedic Yoga Massage in Kent, alongside her qualifications in seated chair massage, reflexology and yoga.

Please book for twenty-minute slots of seated chair massage will be offered throughout the day to relieve muscular pressure and leave staff feeling energised and refreshed.

10.30 – 11.30 – Nutrition talk – with Leni Wood

Leni Wood is a registered Nutritional Therapist specialising in gut and women’s health within her online clinic at OWN Nutrition. Leni is also the Head of Nutrition & Wellness Development for Nellsar Care Homes Ltd where she works closely with catering, care and nursing teams who support elderly and vulnerable adults living with long-term illness and dementia.

The hour will include:

• The basics of healthy eating and energy balance.
• How to nourish yourself throughout the day, with a focus on sustaining energy through diet, avoiding the 3pm biscuit(s) and subsequent sleepy slump.
• Macronutrients and micronutrients and how they can affect energy production.
•  The gut / brain connection.
• Simple tips for improving diet and lifestyle.

14.00 – 15.00 – Sound healing – with Michelle Crozier

Led by Michelle Crozier, originally from an opera and musical theatre background Michelle became a kirtan drummer and backing vocalist, supporting other artists.  She then realised her dream of leading her own kirtans and sound healing events.

The hour will entail a sound healing journey in which attendees which just need to sit back and relax. The intention is to let go of the stresses of everyday life that can appear in the body on a physical, emotional and energetic level. The music will be a creative mix of singing bowls, tingsha and koshi bells, kalimba, shamanic sounds, drumming, mantra singing and rich angelic tones.

12.00 – 14.00 – Medway staff barbecue

Food, drinks, live music socialising and networking… We hope to see you there!

Check out the daily programmes for the Staff Conference 2022.

Don’t forget to check out The Medway Learning and Teaching Festival.

The cost of living is an increasing concern for many of us following recent announcements on both the energy price cap and rising inflation. We want to make sure we are doing what we can now to prepare for this and support staff and students wherever we can. 

Staff from HR, Commercial Services and Finance are meeting regularly to identify what we can put in place ahead of the winter months. Trade Union and Staff Representatives are also gathering suggestions ahead of the 21 September JSNCC where we aim to come up with an initial list of measures to introduce. This includes looking into external schemes that could help staff with managing their finances, circulating discounts available to staff, and seeing what other financial measures might be possible on top of the recent one-off payment from the Staff Resilience Fund. 

The potential impact on students is also a huge concern for all of us and we want to do everything we can to minimise the impact on their studies. A cross-University working group led by Kent Union is meeting regularly to quickly identify ways we can support new and returning students. This includes campaigns to raise awareness of the range of financial support available to students at Kent, plus any new initiatives we can put in place to limit the impact of rising costs. Discussions are also taking place with other universities and the local council about city-wide activity. 

This is a worrying time for so many here and across the country, both in terms of personal budgets and the wider impact on businesses and institutions. We are also keeping a close eye on the impact on our own bills as a University, both in terms of utilities across our estate and our wider suppliers. All of us will have a part to play in this, from putting forward suggestions for how we can support each other to doing what we can to minimise non-essential spend – we will also provide regular updates on our work on this as the working group continues to meet. 

Make a suggestion to your Trade Union or Staff Representative 

Get confidential support anytime via our Employee Assistance Programme 

As part of our Staff Conference 2022 (15-16 September), our ‘EDI Pathway’ will take place on Thursday 15 September. This is a day-long, face-to-face strand of presentations and workshops addressing, among other things, the experience of our trans students, the role of our staff disability network, accessibility and adult education.

All sessions will be taking place in Room TS2 in Templeman, so take a look at the schedule and come along!

10.15 – 11.00 – The experiences of our trans students – with Lynne Regan

This session will present Lynne’s recent research which looks at how improvements to university processes and facilities can provide a more inclusive environment where trans students feel validated and supported. It considers how trans-inclusive curricula can help to address the power imbalance of learning within a privileged cisnormative environment. The session will include group discussions with scenarios about we can better support our trans students.

11.15 – 12.00 – StellarHE – promoting diversity in leadership – with Sarah Dustagheer

Authenticity, inclusive emotional intelligence, cultural competence and inclusive leadership are some of the attributes that Black, Asian and ethnically diverse leaders bring to Higher Education. And yet they continue to be under-represented in senior roles and their lived experiences continue to be impacted by micro-aggressions through to outright discrimination.

StellarHE supports the achievement of Race Equality Charter Mark goal to “inspire a strategic approach to making cultural and systemic changes that will make a real difference to minority ethnic staff and students”. It is a tried and tested development experience for Diverse Leaders in HE.

In this session the first ever cohort of StellarHE colleagues from Kent share their experience of the course.

12.00 – 13.00 – What are they saying about faith in universities? – with Revd Dr Stephen Laird

Recent research has revealed that students at UK universities are now generally more attuned to religious faith than lecturers, supervisors and service providers. Our own student demographic has moved decisively towards greater ethnic and cultural diversity – something which is not reflected to the same extent across the staff body – and this observation certainly applies at Kent. This session will involve the sharing and discussion of data and our local insights followed by a discussion.

13.50 – 14.30 – Why do we bother with EDI initiatives? with Martin Michaelis

Is the purpose of EDI to make sure we adhere to legal requirements and remain in line with the law? Or do we want to go beyond the minimal requirements set by the law? And if so, why?

Drawing on his experience as EDI Lead in the Division of Natural Sciences, Martin will outline the importance of understanding why we undertake EDI initiatives and how the University and all staff and students can benefit from doing so. What is needed, he argues, is an inclusive, participatory leadership approach across the University that gives everybody the opportunity to make meaningful contributions and to receive the recognition for them.

14.30 – 15.15 – Get involved – the Staff disability network – with Dr Jennifer Leigh, Josie Caplehorne, Hannah Greer and Dr Jolie Keemink

What does it mean to be disabled, chronically ill or neurodivergent? What is it like to work with or manage a disabled or neurodivergent person? What are we too afraid to ask or say?

Delivered by the Staff Disability Network, this session will create more openness and understanding around these topics, introduce the Network’s activities, explain how you can get involved and what the network can do to support you. An open discussion will follow, using an approach that harnesses creative research methods to bring about conversations on topics that can be hard to put into words and to co-create a tangible output.

15.30 – 16.15 – Making information and learning accessible for all – with Kasia Senyszyn

How do we make our content and our teaching more inclusive? How do we gain confidence in creating accessible content to support all our students?

This session is for all staff who want to improve their support for students and staff with additional accessibility needs, as well as develop creative ways to embed ‘reasonable adjustments’ into their work and processes. Come along to learn interactively and to play some games!

If you have any access requirements for the session please do get in touch.

16.15 – 17.00 – Bridging the gap: How the University is breaking barriers to adult education and doing 6th form differently – with Donna Coyte and Lucy Frost

Diversifying our teaching provision is an important objective for the University as it enhances opportunity for students, breaking down barriers to progress and achievement. Find out about the University’s responsive and flexible approach to adult education and 6th form provision, why we do this, what we’ve learnt and why it matters.

Listen to our students on the 6th form programme on the Medway campus as they explain why they love our University Entrance Diploma course, how it has helped them to progress to undergraduate study and why we decided to develop and invest in this innovative programme. Adult students on the University’s Access to HE Diploma programme will also share their experiences of getting back to education. This session will focus on how and why this information can be of use to staff with some key ‘take-aways’, with a brief Q&A at the end.

Check out the daily programmes for the Staff Conference 2022.

Last year’s inaugural staff conference was necessarily a virtual event. This year, with Covid restrictions behind us, we can for the first time ensure that connectivity, collaboration and community-building of the face-to-face kind lie at the heart of our annual staff conference.

Everyone gets involved

The programme, launched today, shows us I think a number of things: with more than 50 sessions led and presented by around 70 members of staff, it shows us the extraordinary richness of the ideas, interests and insights that colleagues are keen to share with others. It highlights the tremendous opportunities we all have to learn from one another and it underlines the ambition that underpins so many of the activities being undertaken here at our University.

Such was the number and quality of the proposals received that the organising committee decided to extend the period of the conference and start it at the beginning of the week commencing 12 September with a number of wellbeing-related activities, tours of facilities within Divisions, bookable health tests and much more taking place through the whole week both at Canterbury and at Medway.

What we have in store

On the morning of September 15 the formal programme kicks off with a ‘state of the nation’, priority-setting welcome and introduction by the Vice-Chancellor, with a chance to ask questions. This will also highlight projects coming this year that demonstrate our collective pursuit of progress and our determination to make our mark in the world – linked to our new and exciting brand identity, which has ambition at its core.

Later that morning, we have an in-conversation session, open to all, between Kent and Kherson State University, our Ukrainian ‘twin’ institution, currently under Russian occupation. What is university life like for staff and students at Kherson under such difficult and challenging circumstances? How are students and staff coping? How can our twinning initiative help them? Come along and find out.

Through the day and a half of the conference, one strand of activities (Strand A) will be available on Teams as well as face to face, highlighting the University’s three strategic pillars, introducing some key initiatives, and launching the new People and Culture Strategy.

Features of the conference

Another feature of the first day is an ‘EDI Pathway’, a day-long, face-to-face strand of presentations and workshops addressing, among other things, the experience of our trans students, the role of our staff disability network, accessibility and adult education.

Health and wellbeing are at the heart of the programme too with a wide range of activities that will be as good for your mind and soul as they are for your body, including pilates, tai chi, zumba, a tour of the trees of the southern slopes, and the very first appearance on campus of Jack the therapy cat! Financial advice will also be available, as will help in navigating the support accessible by all through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

Employability, schools and colleges outreach, data protection, communications support, and showcases of the work of our Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi) and Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) will also feature prominently. And look out for Vicky Annis from Kent Sport, giving us her first-hand account of volunteering at the recent Commonwealth Games.

Network opportunities

Opportunities to socialise and network will be key to the event – with lunch and a drinks reception open to all on the 15^th – as we look to bring colleagues together, celebrate our achievements and look forward to those to come. There will also be giveaway items for staff that showcase our new look and feel, linked to the brand launch at the beginning of the day.

Last – and certainly not least – the staff barbecue, a highlight of the staff calendar, will take place at lunchtime on the 16^th to round off the week off in suitably celebratory fashion.

Launch events, social and networking occasions, leisure and fitness activities, tours, workshops, presentations, debates and discussion… I hesitate to say that ‘there’s something for everyone’ – but there really is!

Do take a look at the programme, come to as much as you can and we look forward to seeing you there.

Philip Pothen | Director of Engagement