To help address the additional financial pressure this year including inflation and the increased cost of living, we all need to do all we can to help reduce any non-essential spend – the Finance team have written to budget holders with updated budgets to reflect this and we should all keep this in mind when planning projects in the months ahead. We have also put in place an ‘exceptional approval to hire’ process so there is tighter control around staff recruitment for the time being.

Our Financial Statements and Annual Review for 21/22 have now been published, showing an underlying operating result of an £11.7m deficit which is in line with the budget we set for the year – reflecting an important step on the path to achieving financial sustainability. As with many universities, this year’s accounts include a very significant additional pensions charge of £54.6m which is why you see a larger overall deficit – this is the result of the 2020 valuation of the USS pension scheme and is an accounting adjustment only, with no adverse impact on Kent’s underlying performance or cash levels.

Reflected in the reported 21/22 performance was the return to more regular conditions as the impact of Covid receded, with increased face-to-face activity, improved occupancy and more use of student accommodation and catering facilities leading to increased income. Total income grew by 3.7% to £260.4m compared to 2020/21, although tuition fees were lower with increased competition for students. This return to full activity and the removal of temporary measures to control costs, as well as additional investment into areas of growth potential, meant that costs increased by 11%, to £274.5m. This excess of spend over income, along with planned payments to lenders resuming in-year, has meant that our cash balances have reduced in the year, to £30.5m (equivalent to 45 days of spend). Whilst this still exceeds the University’s financial sustainability target, work continues to improve the underlying operating performance and cash generation.

Looking ahead, 2022/23 has brought additional challenges with lower student retention than expected impacting on income levels, and inflation and energy costs are also placing pressure on budgets. We have put in place measures to ensure that we can we achieve the budgeted result – a managed deficit of £6.0m. This involves short-term cost control measures which delay the timing of new investments and restrict non-essential spending. We’re currently working through the details of these measures and will be providing full updates to budget holders early in the New Year. Alongside this, and with a focus on the longer-term financial sustainability, initiatives are being worked up aimed at increasing and diversifying income and ensuring our operations are delivered as efficiently as possible.

Kent has moved up 12 places in the 2022 People and Planet University League – a comprehensive and independent league table of UK universities ranked by environmental and ethical performance.

Despite the significant challenges faced over the last few years both from the covid-19 pandemic and from economic pressures and resulting changes within the University we have seen some significant score increases in many areas of the league this year, resulting in Kent climbing to 29th place overall out of 153, up from 41st in 2021.

This rise was helped by significant improvements in Carbon Management Plans, Sustainable Food and Staff & Student Engagement. The University placed 13th in the UK for its carbon management plans reflecting the hard work of the Estates department and sustainability team during the last few years in setting ambitious targets and developing the plans to achieve them.

Kent scored 100% for both the Environmental Policy and Environmental Auditing & Management sections which recognises the university’s ongoing demonstration of its commitments through the operation of an externally certified Environmental Management System.

Based on a campaign to call university careers services to end promotion or information related to careers in the oil, gas and mining industries, the Ethical Careers and recruitment was a new addition to the table this year. Kent performed better that its peers here, coming 10^th overall.

Catherine Morris, Sustainability Manager at Kent says: ‘Our performance in this table reflects our continued commitment to sustainability.  I am especially pleased to see that the hard work of all of our staff and students who contribute to our sustainability work is being recognised in the People and Planet league table.

While our improvement in the table is fantastic news, we are aware that there is still more that we would like to achieve. We will continue working hard across the University to address any areas where we could be doing more to ensure we fulfil the commitments set out in our Sustainability Strategy.’

Read more about sustainability at Kent: https://www.kent.ac.uk/sustainability

With the current snowy weather, we want to let our staff and students know that our Canterbury and Medway campuses are open as normal today (Monday 12 December).

Some classes may also be moved online due to staff unavailability. Students – your Division will be in touch if this affects you, but do check your emails or get in touch before travelling if you want to make sure.

Please take care when coming in and check the latest travel advice before you make the trip to campus via @unikent_travel on Twitter.

If you can’t get in, let your manager know if you’re a member of staff, or your Division if you are a student. If needed, students should also follow divisional procedures for extenuating circumstances and / or authorised absence as required.

You can read our adverse weather policy for further information.

Follow @UniKent on Twitter for further updates.

Great news, Carols around the Tree returns this month! Sadly the event was cancelled last year due to the sudden return of lockdown.  This year however, carols will be sung! So come along on Tuesday 13 December from 17:00 and enjoy singing on the Registry Lawn.

Please take a look at our online song sheet.

What we have in store

17:00 – Staff and students gather on the Registry Lawn for free mulled-wine and warm chestnuts (Brass ensemble and Ukrainian Choir take their places)

17:05 – Ukrainian Choir Sing 2 songs (unaccompanied) in Ukrainian

17:10 – Concert begins with brass ensemble playing Silent Night – Ukrainian choir (only) to sing first verse in Ukrainian. Staff and students to join and sing second verse onwards.

17:15 – Everyone sings remaining carols together

17:40 – Ends

We hope to see you there!

Representing a range of culture, academic discipline, and personal interests, we are delighted to showcase this year’s cohort of Global Officers who are taking part in the Global Officers Leadership Development (GOLD) Programme.

Our Global Officers bring you a festive advent calendar where they share what Christmas means to them, their favourite things, and traditions at this time of year.  We hope you enjoy it in this countdown to Christmas. Kent Christmas Calendar

The programme is a co-curricular venture, designed to fit around their academic studies.  It provides a framework of activities for globally-minded undergraduate students at Kent to develop their leadership skills, global citizenship and cultural awareness.

So far this year, our Global Officers have explored their own Cultural Intelligence and how they can develop this further; looked at the Sustainability Emergency and their role in Sustainable Advocacy; worked with Kent Sport and Kent Union to support various World Cup activities, supported the International Student Experience Fair and developed our series of Global Hangouts, with the next one happening on Wednesday 14 December.

In addition to their core activity under the programme, Global Officers are available to partner with Kent staff for any divisional, school or departmental projects, events or activities on campus.

If you have an activity that you would like to engage our Global Officers, have a look at their profiles and please get in touch.

Did you know that you can also incorporate the GOLD Programme within your courses by listing it as a wild module option, GOLD5000 Global Leadership Development? If your course does not allow for this, then students can still take this as an extra-curricular activity; applications for 2022/23 will open in the summer.

For more information about the Programme, please email DeanGlobalLifelong@kent.ac.uk

Our speaker on Thursday 8^th December (16.00 in CESR2) will be Professor Annette Boaz of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her talk will follow on nicely from the excellent talk we received earlier this term from her colleague Kathryn Oliver, focusing on how research gets into policy and practice. This will be very useful if you are interested in research impact, especially in adult social care.

Title: Assembling the pieces: developing systems that support research use in policy

After many years of debate about the merits of Evidence Based Policy, there is a growing consensus that the relationship between research and policy is complex and non-linear, with politics as a constant factor (as opposed to something to be controlled). With this shift comes a growing interest in approaches that build stronger links between those who produce research, those who use research and those who are the intended beneficiaries of research. This theme of increasing engagement between the producers and potential users of research is accompanied by a recognition that robust systems are needed to support research use in policy.   What do better relationships look like? What systems changes are needed to support the use of research in policy and finally, what elements continue to stand in the way of better use of research evidence?  This presentation will draw on more than 20 years of experience promoting the use of research in policy and practice and insights from current work as a knowledge mobiliser within the UK government.

This year the University Kent is applying for University of Sanctuary status. As part of the City of Sanctuary movement, the Universities of Sanctuary network aims to ‘make Higher Education institutions places of safety, solidarity and empowerment for people seeking sanctuary’.

To help ensure that the University’s application process is properly reflective and self-critical, the Migration and Movement SRT is holding a series of seminars throughout the year that address the question ‘What is Sanctuary?’

Speakers from a range of disciplines, career stages and backgrounds will discuss what sanctuary means and entails. Contributions will be a mix of academic talks and reflections on lived experience.

All sessions are online. Everybody is invited to join the conversation.

What is Sanctuary 2, 16.00-17.00, 7 December 

Dr Lucy Williams, Senior Visiting Research Fellow (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research) 

This paper will consider sanctuary in a time of ‘crisis’. East Kent, and especially Dover and Manston, are yet again in the eye of the migration storm. In this fevered atmosphere what is the role of ‘sanctuary’? Policy makers rely on closely prescribed (yet flexible) categories to sift the worthy from the unworthy but in forcing people to prove their lives fit into these categories, experience is simplified, and the person is lost. Can encouraging sanctuary in our communities and workplaces be a way to bring attention back to the individual to challenge both policy and public portrayals of migration?

Dr Rachel Gregory Fox, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (School of English) 

This paper will consider the subject of the camp as presented in Yousif M. Qasmiyeh’s Writing the Camp. While refugee camps, in some respects, represent places of apparent safety, community, and shelter, they are also contingent and precarious. The paper will consider how these two aspects of the camp call into question the possibility of its status as a place of sanctuary. Qasmiyeh’s poetry sets institutional oversight and international charitable aid within the camp alongside what Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh identifies as ‘refugee-refugee relations’. The paper considers how Qasmiyeh thus disrupts more centralised views of host-relations, hospitality and sanctuary.

Basma El-Dhouki, GCDC Doctoral Candidate (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research) 

Basma El-Dhouki is a Palestinian refugee living and working in Lebanon. For twelve years she has been active in humanitarian and development work with refugees and asylum seekers within UNHCR, UNRWA and international NGOs in Lebanon and Syria. Her work has focused on sexual and gender-based violence, child protection and general protection, prevention and response programs. Basma’s PhD focuses on “The role of Refugee-Led Organisations in providing protection and assistance for displaced communities in the Lebanon, Syria and Jordan”. The project explores the nature of refugee-led organisations, the factors conditioning their impact and interventions, and the inclusion of refugees in their own development. Basma’s talk will address the question of sanctuary from the perspective of her professional background.

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