From Jane Higham, Chief Financial Officer

As we head into the summer after an especially challenging year, I wanted to give everyone an update on the work to embed the new structures put in place over the last 12 months. It’s been a challenging year for everyone and we really do hear what many of you are saying about the impact the changes have had on many people’s workload and wellbeing. As Chair of the Project Strategic Group overseeing implementation, I fully appreciate there is a lot still to do to get this right. In particular, our processes and ways of working are making it hard to realise the benefits of the new structures, and both these and the initial challenges with KentVision are vital issues for us to address to help make things easier.  

Actions are much more important than words with this and we are prioritising a number of immediate changes to start alleviating workload pressure as we head into next year. This is on top of accompanying work to clarify academic governance structures and to identify opportunities for short-term support where its impact would be most felt.

How We Work: Process Improvement

Activity led by the Project Management Office to fast-track process improvement university-wide is pushing ahead, with initial scoping work having identified a number of both quicker wins to work on along with some longer-term change initiatives that need to be prioritised. A number of the more immediate opportunities for improvement are already being addressed, with the PMO supporting teams and process owners to get changes in place quickly – thank you to everyone you sent in suggestions for this via the How We Work pages.

Framework Agreements 

The relationship between Divisions and central Professional Services teams is key to the success of our new structure. Those relationships are defined within framework agreements which cover how the different teams work together, where accountability sits and who leads on which areas of activity. The majority of the frameworks are now in place and are forming the basis of ongoing collaboration between Divisions and central teams – the remainder will be agreed by October at the latest. 

Heads of Profession 

Supporting this will be Heads of Profession who will provide leadership, training and support for colleagues working in their professional areas across the University. It has taken time to develop this role and the expectations for interaction between different areas that come with it – again, these will be in place in line with the final framework agreements by October. 

Ongoing Engagement 

Bringing new communities together while working remotely has been a challenge, and we are currently developing plans for ongoing engagement in different areas to help with this. This is to ensure there are regular opportunities for different key groups to come together, supported by a broader programme of staff engagement activity throughout the year opening with the proposed Staff Conference in September.  

Whilst I can’t promise things will get better quickly, I hope this reassures you that the pressures staff are experiencing are recognised and that actions are being taken to address what we can as quickly as possible. In the meantime, while I know it remains a busy time for many – and particularly those involved in the huge Clearing efforts this week – I hope colleagues can take advantage of reduced email traffic and some time off over the summer and I look forward to continuing to improve how we work together in the year ahead. 

Jane Higham | Chief Financial Officer

The University was very sorry to learn that Philip North died on 4 June, 2021, aged 72.

Dr North obtained his PhD from the University of Kent in 1979, on the topic of Statistical methods in ornithology. He was an active member of an Ecology Research Group, which predated DICE.

In addition through his research, links were established with the British Trust for Ornithology and the Centre d’Ecologie Fontionnelle & Evolutive, CNRS Montpellier, which are continued by the current members of the Statistical Ecology at Kent research group in SMSAS.

He became Director of the Applied Statistical Research Unit at Kent (subsequently ASRU Ltd), which for many years undertook consultancy with a range of pharmaceutical companies.

Words by Byron Morgan, SMSAS

The Income Office are looking for temporary staff (not current UG or PG students) to assist in our call centre. Starting date to be 1 September for 2 x Call Centre staff for 8 weeks and 1 x Admin role until 17 December 2021.

The nature of the work is to answer telephone enquiries from students, parents and sponsors and full training will be provided. The admin role will be to assist with email responses.

If you know of anyone (over 18) who might be interested would you please ask them to apply via this links below.  The deadline date for applications is Friday 13 August 2021.

Please take a look at the job descriptions for more information:

Income Office Call Assistants

Income Office Call Assistant (Admin) 

Kent Hospitality’s Housekeeping Team were delighted to award one of their team members, Hayley Blindell, with a British Association of Cleaning in Higher Education (BACHE) Highly Commended certificate last week.

The BACHE certificate recognised Hayley’s professionalism, hard work and the supportive team role which she fulfils within the university. Hayley has demonstrated this through all her seven years working at Kent, but her nomination pulled examples from the past 12 months. In this period, Hayley has repeatedly gone above and beyond by altering working patterns and being heavily relied upon to support her colleagues with the many changes that have arisen due to the pandemic.

Extracts from Hayley’s successful nomination included customer feedback such as the following:

“Please could you share with your team a massive thank you from KMMS. I understand speaking to a colleague this morning that your team were awesome! And made our Academics feel like everything was taken care of. As you can imagine assessments are a highly stressful time for both staff and students – the housekeeping team in Pears made things so easy that we did not have to fret about it.”

“We know how methodical the team are but to have this support on the day was amazing.”

Many congratulations to Hayley on her well-deserved win.

Congratulations to Professor Keith Somerville on being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHS).

Keith’s current roles at Kent include teaching Propaganda, and Communication and Humanitarianism modules at the Centre for Journalism, and being an active member of the Durrell Institute (DICE); for example, giving lectures on the ivory trade to Master’s students.

The RHS Fellowship recognises Keith’s contribution to historical research, including his history of research and publication (five books and several journal papers) on modern African history. This has culminated in Africa’s Lond Road Since Independence, The Manu Histories of a Continent, and his last three books on the history and current nature of human-wildlife conflict in Africa, dealing with the ivory trade, human-lion conflict and demonisation of the hyena by humans.

Commenting on his Fellowship, Keith said: ‘The RHS is an excellent forum for exchanging ideas and finding out about new research… Being a Fellow will be invaluable as a networking and research tool and is a very welcome recognition of my contribution to historical study.’

Keith is also a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London; a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. His book on Ivory won the Marjan-Marsh Conservation Award in 2016.

A full list of the recently conferred RHS Fellowships can be seen on the Society’s webpages.

From the International Partnerships team:

We are pleased to announce that the University’s first application to the UK Government’s new Turing Scheme has been successful!

Launched earlier this year, the Turing Scheme is a replacement for the UK’s participation in the EU Erasmus Programme, which will end by May 2023. The Turing Scheme will support Global Britain by funding  international opportunities in education and training across the world.

Grants will be provided for students from UK institutions to study or work abroad for periods of four weeks to 12 months, starting in September 2021. Priority will be given to widening access, with additional funding for less advantaged students.

Kent success

In the first round of applications, Kent has been awarded a substantial amount of funding to allow us to support a wide range of international placements for Kent students in 2021-22. These range from studying Astrophysics in the USA to working as a Conservationist in Fiji, or attending a summer school on Economics in India.

We are also delighted to have secured additional funding to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs or disabilities. We will be working closely with Divisions and Professional Services departments to promote the global opportunities and associated funding available to our students.

Our Turing funding is in addition to our substantial Erasmus funding which will give grants to Kent students studying and working throughout Europe in 2021-22. All international placements for 2021-22 are subject to approval following a thorough process of Covid-related risk assessments and the lifting of any travel restrictions.

For more details, please contact internationalpartnerships@kent.ac.uk or visit the Turing website.

By Christine Davies, Learning Environment Assistant

Can you tell us more about your role?

Together, our teams – Facilities Management, Learning Environment, Service Delivery and Support & Liaison – look after the physical spaces, resources and service points in the Templeman Library. We help users make the most of our physical collections/study spaces and provide in-person/online help with library and IT queries. We could be the person on the phone helping you with a password reset, issuing your carrel key from the Welcome Desk, trundling past with a trolley of textbooks, or handing over a computer to support working from home.

Students are at the heart of what we do, but we also have plenty to offer staff, as well as our local community. A real privilege of working in the Library is our dual capacity for education and leisure. Of the 12 items I currently have on loan (you can borrow up to 40), one is a cookbook, a CD, two are DVDs and the rest a mix of fiction (titles like Golden Hill and The eye of the reindeer) and non-fiction (topics as diverse as running, medieval science and beauty).

How has the pandemic affected your work?

In March 2020, the pandemic prompted a University-wide lockdown and the Templeman closed its doors too. Most of our teams were suddenly tasked with working from home although a handful of essential staff remained to manage building maintenance (Covid-proofing) and book returns (or avalanches, in those early days!).

The experiences of front-line colleagues – including Jon Peacock (Support Supervisor), Nick Goodman (Support Officer), Sally Vinicombe (Welcome Desk Supervisor), Joe Lucas (Learning Environment Team Leader) and Luke Ranger (Facilities Manager) – highlight three distinct phases in the Templeman’s pandemic timeline:

1)    Panic stations (March-July 2020)

Jon: The IT & Library Support Desk had to move entirely online and quickly familarise ourselves with MS Teams and other remote working tools so we could advise others. The first lockdown was particularly busy in fielding calls, emails and online chats from students and staff grappling with remote-working and technology, all in the lead-up to exams!

2)    Covid-proofing (July-December 2020)

Luke: As we planned how to re-open in line with Government guidance, we re-calculated our building capacity and implemented measures to promote safe movement and behaviour. This involved moving/removing furniture to create individual socially distanced study spaces, distributing signage to support a one-way system, and locking/cordoning off areas of risk (like unventilated group study rooms).

Joe: We adapted team operations, introducing work bubbles to limit the spread of Covid. We focused on fulfilling book fetch requests to ensure access to physical resources while limiting visitor footprint. We made retrievals twice daily, processing and storing requested items at a reservation pick-up in the Welcome Hall. We also introduced a 72-hour stock quarantine to delay items moving between users.

Sally: The Welcome Desk stripped everything back to essentials only, suspending our visitor services to prioritise student access to the Library, and switching our approach to advisory rather than hands-on. We handled a wider variety of queries, stretching our own knowledge base and encouraging students to be more self-sufficient.

Nick: We’ve added Perspex screens to the Support Desk and re-spaced the desks to reinforce social distancing for the safety of staff and customers. It’s also been exciting to explore new ways of improving our remote support through MS Teams.

3)    The new normal (January-June 2021)

Joe: From September 2020, we noticed that quarantine had an impact on users, particularly in accessing high-demand items. So we increased our digital offering, reintroduced self-service shelf access and made adjustments to secure everyone’s safety and wellbeing. In response, students were complying with what was once considered unnatural: sitting a desk apart from their friend, studying with a mask and following a one-way system around the building.

How can colleagues make the most of library services?

As lockdown eases, we hope to gradually reintroduce our full range of services over the summer, as well as prepare for an effective Welcome Week. Our bookable study spaces are already available and we hope to reopen our popular Chill-Out Room by September.

If you’re visiting the Library, check out key updates on our website and a whiteboard in the Welcome Hall. We recommend using our online tools to check opening hours, building occupancy, and our catalogue. Library Search remains an invaluable resource, and our Library Collections colleagues have been busy adding more e-resources throughout the pandemic, so do use the filters to check if your book or journal is available online.

Other useful digital tools include our Software finder and E-resources A-Z. Why not check out BOB (Box of Broadcasts), a handy way to catch up on recent TV & radio, our recently-added collection from the National Theatre or Summer Reads chosen by colleagues from across the Library?

You can stay up to date by following our blog and social media channels. Our Support Desk is open through the summer (09:00-18:00 weekdays, 12:00-18:00 Saturdays), and you can reach us remotely during these hours by phone (01227 82 4999), email (libraryhelp@kent.ac.uk) or via the “Chat to us” that appears on most library webpages.

[Main image shows: Front Line Services staff (from left to right) including Christine Davies, Joe Lucas, Jon Peacock, Sally Vinicombe and Kaidi Goke]

Our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support, including weekly webinars.

This week’s (Monday 2 August –  Friday 6 August) webinars are as follows:

Monday 2 August 2021 – ‘How Care first can support you’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Tuesday 3 August 2021 – ‘Coping with uncertainty’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 4 August 2021 -‘Anxiety of the clinically vulnerable as restrictions ease’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 5 August 2021 – ‘The benefits of cycling’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 6 August 2021 -‘Information for MHFA’s, Mental Health Champions & Managers supporting teams as restrictions ease’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link