With more of us working on campus at least part of the time, it is essential that we all continue to keep safety at the front of our minds.   

 Key to ensuring everyone stays safe is regular testing and reporting of results.  

Everyone coming onto campus should continue to take a Covid lateral flow test twice a week. You can get walk-in tests or pick up take-home kits from the Old Bank on our Canterbury campus or the Old Sports Hall at Medway, or order them online.   

Reporting is also critical to supporting the national effort to counter Covid. If you are using a home test kit, please remember to report your lateral flow test results to the NHS, using the postcode CT2 7FS, whether they are positive or negative – instructions on how to do this should come with the testing kit itself.    

If you have symptoms or if you do test positive, you must self-isolate for 10 days from the day your symptoms started and get a PCR test as quickly as possible. If your PCR test is positive, please let your line manager know and also email covidsupport@kent.ac.uk.   

If someone in your household tests positive, and even if your own test is negative, you are encouraged to work at home if you can during the self-isolation period. If your role is not normally one that works remotely, please talk to your line manager about any work you can do from home. If there is no work you can do remotely, please remain away from work for the duration of the isolation period (if you are living with someone with Covid-19) or until you have had a negative PCR test (for a close contact)  

Other ways we can do our bit to stay  safe are:  

Vaccinations – A key component in national efforts against Covid. If you qualify for a booster jab,  you are strongly encouraged to get one if you can.   

Face coverings – We strongly encourage and recommend that staff and students wear face coverings in crowded indoor spaces, particularly if meeting people from outside their area. Face coverings are available free of charge from any student reception desk.  

Ventilation – We are monitoring buildings and rooms across campus to ensure they meet Government guidelines on airflow. Keeping a window open supports this and our ‘virtual first’ approach to staff meetings also helps reduce the number of gatherings. If you wish to double-check airflow levels in your area, get in touch with Estates Customer Services to borrow a CO2 monitor.  

Following checks by our Estates team, some of our teaching spaces have reduced capacity. If you’re teaching in these rooms, you’ll need to follow ‘user instructions’ on ventilation. You can find out which rooms this applies to, and check on any changes ahead of your class, on the live teaching room spreadsheet on our Estates webpages. Useful guidance on ventilation is also available from our SHE team. 

From Martin Atkinson, Director of HR and Organisational Development

As you know, members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Kent will be taking industrial action in the form of a national strike next week from Wednesday 1 to Friday 3 December, along with a period of Action Short of a Strike (ASOS). While these are national disputes, the issues involved are important – we take them very seriously at Kent and recognise the strength of feeling among some of our staff around them.

With that in mind, I wanted to update you all on what we are doing to address the different concerns being raised – those who are available can also come to a Staff Webchat tomorrow (Thursday 25 November) from 13.00-1400 where you can ask any questions you may have about this directly; I appreciate this is very short notice so the recording of this will also be shared afterwards.

USS Pensions

The dispute over pensions is long-running and extremely regrettable. Proposed changes to the scheme are currently being consulted on, and we have had an ongoing, constructive dialogue with UCU and staff representatives on it over a number of months. At its heart, disagreement nationally is over the valuation of the USS pension scheme and changes to benefits deemed necessary to address its current deficit. Given the very real risk of unaffordable rises in both employer and employee contributions if agreement isn’t reached, our view is that the proposal put forward by Universities UK currently under consultation is the least worst option available at this time, but we are also calling for a review of the scheme’s wider governance to be carried out without delay and ahead of the next valuation – there is more information on this on our USS Pension Staff Webpages.

Pay and Conditions

There is no denying that recent months have been challenging for our community and I know I speak for all of us on the Executive Group when I say we are determined to put this right. While there is always more to do, there are also areas where we have real progress to build on:

• In the absence of a national agreement with trade unions on pay, in August along with the rest of the sector, we implemented pay increases of between 1.5% and 3.6% to make sure our staff are fairly rewarded within our current financial constraints. In addition, last year we reviewed our Reward Strategy to ensure competitiveness, consistency and transparency in our pay policies.
  
  
• We have done a great deal of work since 2018 to reduce the inappropriate use of timesheet contracts across the University, including introducing new contract types, removing zero hours contracts for teaching staff and agreeing principles with UCU regarding the future use of hourly-paid lecturers. We can, and do, actively deal with exceptions to this when we are made aware of them.
  
  
• We are also fully committed to addressing equality-related pay gaps and have made real progress towards closing the gender pay gap – over the last three years our mean gender pay gap in favour of male colleagues has reduced from 17.9% to 14.3% and the median gap from 13.7% to 8.2%. We will shortly start work with our staff and trade union representatives on our next Equal Pay Audit to help us identify and address the pay gaps across gender, ethnicity and disability.

Workload remains a serious issue, not helped by national staff recruitment challenges since the pandemic. We are, however, taking practical steps to ease the pressure on staff: our new KentVision project manager is working closely with key stakeholders to address the most pressing issues with the system; this will take time and I can only reiterate our apology for the significant impact the initial rollout of this has had on staff. Elsewhere, we will shortly share a staff survey put together with our Wellbeing Working Group to help us identify and then address specific areas where workload is impacting on our mental health.

There is still plenty of work to do, but I’m confident that our plans will make real improvements to life at work for all our staff over the coming months and we will continue to engage constructively with UCU and with all of our trade union and staff representatives on these issues.  As I have said before, while our opinions can differ, all of us want the best for Kent and I hope we can continue to harness this shared determination in the weeks and months ahead.

I hope to see as many as possible at Thursday’s webchat, and in the meantime do read through our Industrial Action Staff Webpages for more information on the background to the current dispute. If you are a UCU member and intend to participate in the strike action and/or the ASOS, please read the University industrial action pay policy and FAQs beforehand.

Recording of webchat 

If you missed Thursday’s webchat on Industrial Action you can listen to the session’s recording. 

Best wishes,

Martin Atkinson | Director of HR and Organisational Development

APOLOGIES BUT THIS YEAR’S QUIZ HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS

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Enjoy the most wonderful time of the year with the Kent Staff Christmas Quiz. It’s the perfect way to get together and test your trivia against friends and colleagues.

Led by Christmas enthusiast and veteran quizmaster Tim Burrows, the Kent Staff Christmas Quiz will take place in Darwin Conference Suite on Tuesday 21 December 2021, 10.00 till 14.30.

The free event will include a fun general knowledge quiz, festive nibbles, and lots of entertainment along the way. Soft and alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase from the bar and via the Order Up! app.

Quiz teams must be made up of 6 players and have a suitably festive team name. The winning quiz team will receive Christmas hampers full of seasonal goodies and treats.

How to enter:

To enter a team of 6, the team leader must complete the Annual Kent Staff Christmas Quiz 2021 form with the following:

• Your contact details
• Your festive quiz team name
• Your department or division

There is no dress code for this event but gaudy Christmas jumpers and fab-yule-ous costumes are highly encouraged. There is a bonus prize to be won for the best dressed quiz team. So, get your quiz team ready and your thinking caps on! For further information and enquiries, please email estatesdirectorateoffice@kent.ac.uk

We have three nominations for a new representative for non-union staff grades 1 to 6, in place of Becky Verlin, on our Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee (JSNCC).

The nominees are:

Jason Shinn – Assistant Housekeeping Manager – Election Statement

Zoe Wood – Finance Officer – Business School – Election Statement

Julien Danan – Finance Officer – Brussels – Election Statement

Staff working within grades 1 to 6 are eligible to vote in the election – if you’re eligible, you will have been sent an email with a link to the ballot form.

The ballot will close at 17.00 on Monday 6 December 2021.

The JSNCC is the main forum for consultation between the University and its staff on matters of mutual interest and is one of our most important and influential committees.

Staff membership comprises representatives of each of the trade unions and four representatives of non-union staff: two from the Academic, Research and Professional Services Staff and two from the Professional Services and Research Support Staff.

Further information about the JSNCC and the nomination and election processes can be found on the JSNCC website or by contacting Colin Smith in the employee relations team via c.smith-832@kent.ac.uk

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year and what better time to get into the festive spirit and do something charitable?

Thousands of people live with Parkinson’s disease in the UK but for many the right treatment is out of reach. We’re determined to change that.  In partnership with the charity Parkinson’s Care and Support UK, we are currently looking to raise £600,000 to establish the world’s first integrated therapy centre offering comprehensive support to those that need it most, while developing new treatments that could give extra hope to so many worldwide.

In order to help reach this target, charity season’s greetings cards are now available to support our fundraising campaign.  Carbasse Implant and Dental Centre, a family run dental practice based in Whitstable, has kindly sponsored the cards and we are most grateful to them for their support.

Practice Manager, Sarah Carbasse, said “I have personal experience of the impact a brain injury can have on an individual and their family. As soon as I heard about this groundbreaking project I knew I wanted to get involved to potentially help change the lives of those living with neuro-disabilities.“

The cards, which feature a snowy view of Canterbury Cathedral from campus and a snowy sheep, are available for a suggested donation of £3.50 for a pack of 10 or three packs for £9 from the Darwin College, Eliot College, Keynes College, Turing College, Tyler Court and Parkwood Receptions or by contacting Anna Pollard – A.J.Pollard@kent.ac.uk or Laura Smith – L.J.Smith-73@kent.ac.uk. All proceeds will go towards supporting this vital project.

Please help us to open this new Centre and change the lives of so many.

Dr Mahmood Shafiee, Reader in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering, has been ranked amongst top 2% of the most influential researchers in the world in a study by Elsevier and Stanford University.

The Elsevier created a publicly available database of over 100,000 top-scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator. The list has placed Dr Shafiee first in the Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and third at the University of Kent.

Dr Shafiee has gained a national and international reputation for his excellent research in different areas of Mechanical Engineering. As of November 2021, he has authored 1 book and 10 book chapters, co-invented 3 patents, and published over 200 articles in the most prestigious journals. He has also a very strong track record of research funding from different National and European bodies, and has been plenary speaker and program committee member of over 100 International Conferences.

Dr Shafiee said “I’m proud of being ranked among Top 2% researchers in the world. It will certainty attract research community’s attention to the research we are doing in Mechanical Engineering Research Group at the University of Kent”.

Further information and the full data set can be found on the publisher’s website.

Thank you to the Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences for this article. 

The KSL Music Collective, a group of musicians including alumni of the University of Kent (Medway) have come together again this year, to bring Christmas cheer to audiences far and wide through a Virtual Christmas Concert – The Spirit of Christmas 2021.

The concert will be streamed via YouTube on 19 December 2021 at 17.30 and will cover a variety of Christmas music performed virtually by singers and instrumentalists. The aim of this event is to share a programme of seasonal music whilst fundraising for a good cause. The group came together last year during lockdown when they put on a successful virtual concert to raise funds for the Medway Street Angels charity for the homeless and a second Spring concert supported the Young Minds charity.

This year they are fundraising for TTVS – a charity that improves lives through supporting young carers, older people living with dementia and people seeking employment, and St Anne’s Bagshot who have supported their music performances and local communities. The concert is organised by Arun Silva, an organist and singer and alumnus of the University of Kent at Medway. The group includes musicians who have studied at the Historic Dockyards campus.

The concert is free to watch on YouTube. Donations can be made via the JustGiving page. To access the programme and receive a link to view the concert, viewers should register free via the Eventbrite page or the Facebook event page. Two lucky donors, selected via a prize draw, will each win a box of brownies from The Beeston Brownie Company. TTVS delivers a diverse range of projects that together seek to improve lives and build healthier and more resilient communities, including young carers, older people living with dementia and those struggling to find employment.  

The charity provides support over a large rural area of over 380 square miles, with limited public transport, access to jobs or further education.   In 2019, Torridge was ranked 67 out of 326 on the Government deprivation indices, with reduced access to housing and services, lower income and poorer physical and mental health.  

St Anne’s Bagshot has supported music over the years by hosting concerts, other events and continues to be a welcoming hub for the local community. Some of the concert performances will be filmed at St Anne’s. More about TTVS projects can be found on their website. This event is produced and promoted by Silva Media.

Active Bystander Training – places are available on 25 November 10.00 -12.00 bookable on Staff Connect. At the University, we are fully committed to support our colleagues when confronting challenging behaviour.

Active Bystander training is a blend of eLearning and a virtual session. This will help ensure that staff can play their part in preventing any inappropriate behaviour.

Georgina Randsley de Moura, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Strategy, Planning and Performance, comments: ‘As part of our commitment to our staff and student community, I am pleased to support the Active Bystander initiative. We value our community, and therefore it is our responsibility to create and nurture an environment, which is safe, supportive, and free from all forms of bullying and harassment. This initiative is an important step forward.’

Active Bystander training is now available for all staff. It comprises an eLearning module, available to self enrol on Staff Training Moodle, followed by a virtual training session on Teams. The upcoming date for the Active Bystander virtual session is 25 November 10.00-12.00, which is bookable on Staff Connect.

The eLearning and session aims to:

• Understand the definition of bystander
• Define the problem and why we need Active Bystanders
• Understand why some bystanders act and some do not
• Look at the skills of a bystander
• Understand what to say and when to say it
• Understand the impact of active bystanders