As we head towards a new term, the Division of Natural Sciences at the University of Kent is taking an exciting and innovative approach to blended learning and student engagement. At a recent showcase, staff shared their experience and advice for adapting teaching to the online world during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how this might benefit students in the next academic year and beyond.

Students studying a range of subjects including Chemistry and Forensic Science, Physics and Astrophysics, Biosciences and Sport and Exercise Sciences will benefit from a collaborative approach from teaching staff across these fields to ensure blended learning will be an exciting and engaging experience.

Dr Victoria Mason, who organised the event says: This event was a celebration of everything staff had achieved in terms of delivering exciting and engaging online learning, as well as a chance for us all to reflect and continue to innovate our approach to give students the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. The feedback from our students about their online learning experience, along with some fantastic innovative ideas and approaches, will help to continue to galvanise all staff and ensure our students enjoy a fantastic learning experience as we head towards a post-pandemic world.’

Staff shared experience of using videos as well as a “bite-size” approach to learning, supplemented by pre-reading and exercises. Highlights from the showcase include the introduction of new tools such as Benchling, the industry’s leading life sciences Research & Development cloud, which was used to successfully create an online ‘virtual escape room’ and learning environment focusing on molecular cloning.

Another tool –  Bokeh Widgets, which are interactive widgets that can show distribution in the form of graphs, was popular with the bioscientists and engaged them will challenging mathematical and statistical concepts used to interpret experimental data.

Director of Education for the Division, Professor Dan Lloyd says: ‘While a lot of our students continued to benefit from face-to-face activities in a covid-secure environment, delivering engaging and exciting online learning was a key focus for all of us.

It’s vital that we learn from this experience and ensure that we keep innovating how we teach. Following this event, and our continue collaborative approach to pedagogy and listening to our students, I am excited about the future of blended teaching and learning at Kent.

Engaging students outside of lectures is just as important. Robert Green, Reader in Forensic Science, has previously shared his tips for building an engaged community and ensuring students still enjoy a wider university experience in these challenging times.

This Nats event was extremely popular with over 50 members of staff attending and engaging with presentations on best practices, innovations and pedagogy.

If you have any questions about the Nats Teaching Showcase please contact Dan Lloyd or Victoria Mason for more information.

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 24 May – Friday 28 May) webinars are as follows:

Monday 24 May 2021 – ‘How Care first Can Support You’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Tuesday 25 May 2021 – ‘Supporting loved ones overseas during the pandemic’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 26 May 2021 – How feelings of loneliness and isolation can make it difficult to
re-interact after lockdown’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 27 May 2021 – ‘How can you tell if someone is struggling with their Mental Health?’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 28 May 2021 – ‘Alcohol Awareness: Drinking safely as lockdown eases’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Welcome to Professor Ben Cosh who joins the University as Director of our Division of Computing, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences in September. 

Ben is joining us from the University of Reading where he is currently Head of the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computation Sciences. 

Ben completed a PhD at Goldsmiths, working with Bill Jackson on Vertex Splitting and Connectivity Augmentation in Hypergraphs, before starting his career in FE teaching maths to students on BTEC, GCSE, A-Level and International Baccalaureate courses. 

On returning to Goldsmiths as a Lecturer, he taught undergraduate courses in Mathematics, wrote a Foundation Year programme for Computer Science and took significant responsibility for teaching quality assurance. 

In 2004, Ben joined the University of Reading as Programme Director for the Science Foundation Year. He was appointed Faculty Director of Teaching and Learning (in 2008), Head of the School of Systems Engineering (2010) and Dean of the Faculty of Science (2014), before becoming Head of the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences in 2016. He has served on the University Boards for Teaching & Learning and Research, the Senate and the governing Council, and contributed to committees and working groups on all aspects of the University’s operation. 

Ben is married to Amy, and they have two boys aged 9 and 7. In his spare time, he enjoys walking in the Lake District, playing the guitar and piano, and failing to keep up with his wife in CrossFit workouts! 

On his new role at Kent, Ben says: ‘I am thrilled to be joining the Executive Group as Director of CEMS and I am very much looking forward to working with the Division’s outstanding staff and students.’ 

Congratulations to Professor Juliette Pattinson, Deputy Director (People) in the Division of Arts and Humanities, on her new role as an Athena Swan Chair for Advance HE.

Juliette’s appointment by Advance HE reflects her commitment to promotion of the EDI agenda. Specialising as a gender historian, she has three degrees in Women’s Studies and History. She sits on the Editorial Board of Women’s History Review, and has previously served on the Steering Committee of Women’s History Network (2009-12) and co-edited its Women’s History journal.

As Deputy Director (People) at Kent, Juliette leads on probation, promotion, mentoring, appraisal and career development and is acutely aware of the pressing issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity.

As Head of the School of History (2015-2020), Juliette worked closely with colleagues in the submission of an Athena Swan Bronze, which was successfully awarded in 2017, making it just one of eight History departments in the country to hold the award. Her EDI work has also included organising International Women’s Day events, as well as women’s history outreach/aspiration-raising/recruitment events and helping the University to mark Black History Month, Disability History Month, Holocaust Memorial Day and LGBT History Month.

Commenting on her new Athena Swan Chair role, Juliette says: ‘I am delighted to have this opportunity to work collaboratively together to advance gender equality in the Higher Education sector and I hope this role will be to the benefit of the University of Kent in preparing future Athena Swan submissions.’

About Advance HE

Advance HE is a member-led, sector-owned charity that works with institutions and higher education across the world to improve higher education for staff, students and society. It has a particular focus on enhancing teaching and learning, effective governance, leadership development and tackling inequalities through its equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work.

You can find out on the Advance HE website.

Following the UK Government’s recent relaxation of travel rules, our Procurement team has published an updated policy on staff travel during 2021-22.

The new policy states that staff should travel in the UK and abroad only where absolutely necessary and following detailed risk assessment and latest FCDO guidance.

Travel requests will have to be approved by your line manager or director. The expectation is that travel will be much lower in the financial year 2021-22 than in pre-pandemic years.

The new policy includes detailed information on what you need to take into account before you travel including:

• Your health, safety and wellbeing
• Insurance cover
• Financial implications
• Travel/border/visa requirements

Find out more

You can view the new policy now on our Procurement webpages.

Kent staff academics can access up to £15k with the Knowledge Exchange Opportunity Follow On Fund. Check your eligibility and apply before 2 June on the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation website.

Applications are now open to University of Kent academics for a short-term pilot programme follow on fund that develops Knowledge Exchange Opportunities.

The University’s Knowledge Exchange and Innovation (KEI) Department has launched its Knowledge Exchange Opportunity Follow On Fund to support follow on from Impact Case Study development  (Knowledge Exchange Impact Follow On) and recent Innovation funding applications (Knowledge Exchange Innovation Follow On).

Eligible projects are those developing from an Impact Case or from a recent Innovation Funding application (since June 2018) such as Innovate UK or EIRA. Projects can be funded up to £15,000 to help develop further, or understand the market for, a service, research or technology. The costing is for existing staff time, and no recruitment of new staff will be covered by the funding. Costing may include reasonable project specific consumables, access to existing equipment where justified and travel costs.

Applications are open from Tuesday 18 May 2021 with deadline 17.00 Wednesday 2 June 2021. This is a pilot for a short-term funding stream and all funding expenditure will need to be spent, and expenditure related project outcomes delivered before 31 July 2021.

Funding will be attributed on a competitive basis within the limitations of the funds available against Knowledge Exchange Opportunity. As part of the pilot process, consideration will be given to spread of funding across the six Divisions in order to fully evaluate uptake and outputs from such a fund for the benefit of the university as a whole. Decisions will be communicated by 9th June 2021.

To apply for the Knowledge Exchange Opportunity Follow On Fund, academics are encouraged to contact KEI’s Business and Industry Relationship Team via businessrelationships@kent.ac.uk who will answer questions and support with the application process.

Dear Colleagues,

This week gives cause to reflect once again on an extraordinary year as we welcome the latest relaxation of the Government lockdown restrictions. Students across the country have missed out on so many experiences due to the pandemic, so it is now very encouraging to have more students on campus and the chance to look forward to something to celebrate together at KentSummer as things (hopefully!) relax further and exams are out of the way!

Balancing the desire to get back to some form of normality with a need to exercise caution as society opens up again has been at the forefront of my mind as we’ve prepared our plans for the next academic year. Opening our campuses in the autumn and prioritising face-to-face teaching where it makes a real difference are central to our plans – however, we have to balance this with keeping student and staff safety as our number one concern. Planning for large group lectures to remain online is key to this and will add agility to our planning, while allowing us to build on what we’ve learnt over the past year. I know we are having to navigate a range of views here but this approach does give us flexibility and will allow us to move quickly to adapt if we need to.

Covid continues to impact our wider planning and current budget setting too. As a large, complex organisation operating in what is still a global crisis we simply cannot predict all of the outside factors that could impact upon us next year, something which I appreciate is unsettling for everyone. It remains an unstable time for the sector: recruitment challenges both home and international have not gone away; regulation continues to increase and costs continue to escalate, alongside cuts in our core grants. However, the way we have collaborated in the face of adversity over the last year has shown the best of us as a university.

In addition, the discussions I know are underway to prioritise our strategic ambitions and target investment to deliver on our plan for a more sustainable and successful university are starting to bear fruit, and while we have challenges ahead it is really positive to start being able to look to the future again. I hope we can continue to work together in this spirit into next year.

I hope you are able to get a chance to meet up with friends and family over the coming weeks, whether inside or outside – and thank you to everyone working to keep both students and staff safe on our campuses.

With my best wishes to you and your families,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

We are excited that Estuary 2021, a key element of Creative Estuary opens this coming weekend, bringing over 90 artworks and events to the 107-mile trail of the Thames Estuary between 22 May and 13 June.

The festival has been curated in response to the Thames Estuary and the lives, landscapes and histories found there. A mix of large scale and intimate visual art, literature, music and film, it celebrates culture, creativity, recovery and renewal. Conceived to be enjoyed for free, outdoors and in a COVID-19 secure way, the festival invites visitors to take an epic walk along the stunning shorelines of South Essex and North Kent encountering contemporary artworks, storytelling and performance within the estuary’s landscape, historic sites and coastal towns.

Gravesend Pier

The programme for the ambitious online opening weekend of specially commissioned artworks and discussion exploring the three festival themes of climate, rebellion and imperial legacy has been announced.

An Unknown Earth – 22 May – 23 May

This Unknown Earth event  has been curated by four artists all of whom know the Thames Estuary as home:

1. Jas Dhillon is a multimedia practitioner inspired by the people, script, language, symbolic objects, and poetic experiences, of the love and identity imprinted on her as a first-generation Indian female raised in Kent.
2. Elsa James is a British African-Caribbean, conceptual artist and activist living in Southend-on-Sea. Recent projects Forgotten Black Essex (2018) and Black Girl Essex (2019) explore the historical, temporal and spatial dimensions of what it means to be black in Essex.
3. James Marriott, writer, artist, activist and naturalist lives on the Hoo Peninsula and works as part of Platform. He is co-author of the forthcoming book Crude Britannia, which tells the story of Britain’s energy past, present and future with a focus on the Thames Estuary.
4. Lu Williams who, through Grrrl Zine Fair, has been amplifying marginalised voices with a focus on DIY culture, workshops, intersectional feminism and working class culture since 2015.

Nadav Kander, Water3 III, part 1,2 and 3, (Shoeburyness towards The Isle Of Grain), 2015

Alongside the festival, the Associated Programme offers a rich range of events, installations and digital content, and includes work commissioned as part of Creative Estuary Co-Commissions: Ebb and Flow, Precarious Straights and Siltings

Find out more about the full programme on the Estuary Festival website.

Creative Estuary is supported by The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and led by the University of Kent on behalf of a consortium of public sector and cultural organisations.

Entries are now open for the University’s Research and Innovation Prizes 2021.

The annual prizes are designed to celebrate the achievements of academic and professional services staff across a range of areas – especially activities that have had a transformative effect, created new knowledge, benefited a particular community and/or supported others in the research and innovation ecosystem.

This year’s prizes include:

• Starting Research Prize
• Consolidator Research Prize
• Advanced Research Prize
• Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Prize
• Technician of the Year Prize
• Professional Services Support of the Year Prize
• The 2021 Kent Research and Innovation Community Prize

Entry deadline is 12.00 on Friday 28 May. To find out more about the categories and how to apply, please see our Research webpages.