We are pleased to present the Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) report for 2019-20 which showcases the excellent work taking place across the University of Kent to promote and embed equality and inclusivity.
We hope you find the report an interesting and stimulating read and that it demonstrates the high importance that Kent places on issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity.
From Professor Richard Reece | DVC Education and Student Experience
I am delighted to be able to announce that our new student record system, KentVision, is up and running. Through the hard work, dedication and effort of an enormous number of individuals across the entire institution, the migration of student data from SDS to KentVision has been successfully accomplished and the new system is now available for staff and students to use.
It is important to stress that additional functionality will be added to KentVision over the coming days, weeks and months. Information on this will be regularly updated on the KentVision staff webpages.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved for getting us to this point.
With best wishes,
Richard
Professor Richard Reece | DVC Education and Student Experience
Staff can now purchase additional annual leave via our Staff Connect pages.
You can buy 35 hours of additional leave (pro-rata for part-time staff) to be taken between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.
The closing date for applications is 30 June 2021.
Further information on the Additional Leave Purchase Scheme, including how to apply, is available here.
The University of Kent celebrated Earth day last week (22 April) by joining the Race to Zero campaign along with over 70 other UK HE institutions, making public our pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions.
Race To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.
Catherine Morris, Environmental Adviser said:
‘I feel proud that by joining the Race to Zero, our senior leadership has made a public commitment to the net zero agenda and our contribution towards the sector’s leadership on a global level at COP26 in November 2021. I am looking forward to seeing the results of our open consultation with staff and students on how the university can tackle the issues of the climate emergency and I am excited to be part of developing the plans for how we will achieve our net zero target’
We are currently developing the Carbon Management Plan which will set out how we plan to achieve our net zero target.
The university is committed net zero by 2040 in terms of activities it directly controls (such as university vehicles and campus electricity) and by 2050 – or sooner – in indirect emissions (such as those associated with waste and products purchased).
Achieving this will take action across the university from cutting long-haul air travel and reducing paper and plastic use to ensuring that our curriculum and research is aligned with the climate emergency.
All staff and students are invited to complete our consultation to give us your thoughts and ideas on how we can deliver this at Kent. We want to hear from as many people as possible to ensure that our plans reflect the way we want to live, learn and work in the future.
You can also find out more about Kent’s response to the climate emergency by visiting the sustainability webpages or through their social media accounts: Instagram/Twitter
A new online guide for parents-to-be at the University is now available.
The Parents Pack has been created by our Athena SWAN team, in response to comments, questions and queries from parents and carers via focus groups, workshop, surveys and interviews.
The new pack is a source of key information for both those becoming parents while working at Kent and their line managers. Sections include:
The new guide is available now on our HR webpages. If you have any questions/ comments, don’t hesitate to contact: athenaswan@kent.ac.uk
University of Kent’s Special Collections & Archives service has been awarded over £110,000 to assist with the digitising of its collections, through the Capability for Collections (CapCo) fund, administered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Special Collections & Archives, based in the Templeman Library, Canterbury campus, preserve and manage the University’s unique and distinctive collections so that they are accessible for the benefit of teaching, scholarship and society. Collections include the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive and British Cartoon Archive. They are proud to hold Archive Service Accreditation from the National Archives in recognition of their professional standards in acquiring, preserving and providing access to the collections.
Karen Brayshaw, Special Collections & Archives Manager explains:
“The funding will allow us to purchase vital digitising equipment to help with providing online access to the recently deposited Beaverbrook Foundation’s collection of original cartoon artworks and digitising the highly visual original costume designs, theatre playbills and posters from the David Drummond Pantomime Collection”.
The grant will also support collaborative opportunities across the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (ICCI) and Eastern ARC, enabling the University to participate in future special collections and archives digitisation projects.
Main image: Illustrated programme for the pantomime Dick Whittington at Drury Lane Theatre from the David Drummond Collection.
For further information contact Karen Brayshaw, Special Collections & Archives Manager.
The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a great resource for staff. It provides emotional support through telephone assessment at any time of the day. If the assessment shows it is appropriate, staff can access up to 8 sessions of face to face or telephone counselling. Care first also operates a system of telephone support with call handlers with trained expertise in life solutions, for example, debt, benefits. legal, family and caring responsibilities.
Care first runs webinars on a variety of subjects every week. You can now watch a recording of a webinar for University of Kent staff that took place on Wednesday 14 April, and learn more on what the EAP has to offer, first hand.
There are a number of Development sessions available for staff to make the most of. To access all sessions and find out further information on each one please visit the HR-T&OD Staff Training MS Teams Channel.
Here’s a summary of each session that you can sign up to:
Eligibility Checking Training sessions available
5 free spaces on each of the following Webinars:
Equality Impact Analysis Module: This module is for staff who are required to conduct an EIA. It introduces equality analysis principles and how to prepare and carry out an effective EIA
This could be the programme for you if you have ever wanted to:
Dear Colleagues,
As we continue to follow the Government’s roadmap for ending lockdown, we are looking ahead to how and when we will be able to welcome more staff back to campus. A number of you joined our staff webchat earlier today where our incoming Director of HR Martin Atkinson talked through our overall approach to this, which centres on gradually relaxing criteria for returning to campus in line with key changes to Government guidance.
We have now written to Directors of Divisions and Departments with new guidance in place from 10 May to align with the start of the summer term, with more options for coming back on site for those that want to and whose home set–up is causing them difficulties. This is another important moment for us and, all being well later in the summer, we will be able to open our doors more widely as lockdown eases and more life returns to our campuses ahead of next year.
These changes will need to go hand-in-hand with associated plans for more staff to able to split their working week both on and off campus. These are currently being finalised and will require careful consideration across a number of areas to ensure we get the balance right, including drawing on insights from our Future of Work survey. However, I hope the option of more remote working will be of real benefit to many of you as we think about the ways we want to work in future.
Throughout lockdown, we have also tried to broaden some of our staff communications to help keep everyone fully informed at an especially busy time. As more staff return to campus, we are thinking about how to keep this going in the right way, including ways to evolve the current staff webchats into a regular series throughout the year so we all keep having the chance to come together and talk things through.
We will share more plans on this shortly – in the meantime, thank you for your continued hard work and I hope to see more of you over the summer term as we open up our campuses further.
With my best wishes to you and your families,
Karen
Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President
Ahead of National Gardening Week 2021 (26 April-2 May 2021), we talk to Chris Wright, the University’s Landscape and Grounds Supervisor, and Emily Mason, Sustainability Coordinator.
Chris: I coordinate maintenance of the University’s natural spaces – everything from grass-cutting, bed and shrub maintenance, to woodland and pond management and looking after memorial trees and benches. I also oversee management of our sports facilities, working with staff and students on projects that use our green spaces.
A typical day starts with briefing my ten-person team on what needs doing across our 300-acre Canterbury campus. My responsibilities include overseeing planning for future works and developing our new Landscape and Biodiversity Strategy. We work alongside the sustainability team to ensure our management plans align with biodiversity enhancement and support natural space for wildlife as well as people.
Emily: I support sustainability projects across our campuses and provide expertise on specific sustainability topics like biodiversity management and behaviour change solutions. One of my projects is the Kent Community Oasis Garden, which I oversee in partnership with East Kent Mind.
Because my role is so varied, I don’t have a typical day, but I often work with our Sustainability Champions, who embed sustainability into their work. Both Chris and I recognise how lucky Kent is to have beautiful campuses for staff and students to enjoy.
There are many volunteers and sub-contractors who help look after our campus.
Subcontractors support our woodland management by carrying out coppicing rotations on our behalf. Students and staff help with litter picking, biodiversity monitoring, supporting our Hedgehog Friendly Campus project and using the green spaces for educational purposes. Student societies provide feedback and ideas of how we can improve the site alongside the Staff Sustainability Champions network.
We also work with Grounds teams from other universities sharing best practice on sustainable management techniques.
KentCOG is a partnership community garden run by East Kent Mind and the University. It recognises the important role outdoor spaces play in supporting good mental health. KentCOG provides a space for students, staff and the community to learn about growing sustainable food in a calming outdoors environment. It runs practical and digital workshops on ecotherapy, dealing with low mood and anxiety.
The partnership ensures continuity throughout the year with community members keeping the garden going when students aren’t on site.
All Landscape and Grounds staff were stood down during the first lockdown to reduce numbers on campus. This coincided with the start of the growing season, so when we returned we prioritised restoration of central areas.
During lockdown 2, we were partially furloughed again, meaning our usual winter management didn’t happen, but we’ve planned our Winter 2021 programme to catch up by the end of year. Our contractors were able to continue coppicing, so our woodland and tree management plans are still on track.
It’s been hard, but the team have coped very well. We hope people have come to value outdoor spaces even more during the pandemic and will enjoy the campuses’ beautiful landscape when they return.
KentCOG has been closed for most of the pandemic. However, volunteers are now working to restore the site, so we can reopen for events this summer and, hopefully, permanently in September. We have run digital sessions in lieu of practical gardening and will be shortly launching a series of wellbeing workshops for students during the exam term.
We’re keen to emphasise the use of outdoor spaces as safe places for staff and students.
We’re collaborating with Kent Sport in restoring the nature trail at Canterbury, which they’ve publicised alongside their marked-out running routes. We’ve also recently installed a new walking trail from the Canterbury campus to the KentCOG following the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and are developing walking tours led by staff from Landscape and Grounds and the Sustainability Team.
Areas on campus have been marked to be developed as wildflower meadows over the next year. We’ve also commissioned the building of new hibernaculas, providing shelter for important pollinators and other insects. We’ve planted bulbs across 1,000 sq m so people can enjoy seeing new plants popping up over the seasons. Alliums are due next!
We are also hoping to work with the University of Greenwich to enhance green spaces at Medway and create a walking route linking both ends of the campus
Staff are invited to complete our consultation on the Landscape and Biodiversity of our campuses – we’re keen to have lots of ideas for our new Landscape and Biodiversity strategy.
Volunteers are welcome at our open sessions at KentCOG. We’ll let you know as soon as we re-open – in the meantime, you can join our mailing list by emailing kentcog@kent.ac.uk.
You can also find out more about what we do and get in touch via our social media accounts: