From Professor Karen Cox, Vice-Chancellor and President.

I am writing to update you following the Government announcement that a four-week national lockdown is due to come into force on Thursday 5 November.

The Prime Minister’s speech made it clear that, given the importance of education, universities would remain open during this time. Our aim is to continue to provide the best possible education and student experience which is line with Government guidelines for the lockdown period. Having made the necessary health and safety assessment, we are planning to move to Tier 2 under the Department of Education ‘Tiers of Restriction’ for HE provision. This means we will continue to offer a mix of online and on-campus teaching/supervision in a Covid-safe environment.

All our on-campus accommodation will remain open as will the libraries and study spaces. Our catering outlets will also continue to be open but will need to move to a take-away only service.

The new Government guidelines also provides guidance on travel for students living at university either on-campus or in private accommodation off-campus. This states that they should not move back and forward between their permanent and student home during term time.

The number of active cases of Covid-19 remain low for students and staff, and we also have a local testing site at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses. We continue to work closely with our local public health officials and a huge amount of effort have been put in to ensure that our campuses are Covid-safe. The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff remain our key priority and we will continue to work with trades unions and staff representatives.

We are currently waiting for further information from the Government and will write to you again as soon as we have more details.

In the meantime, please continue with your current pattern of work as agreed with your line manager/school. We offer a range of support for staff but if you have any concerns about the current situation please talk to your line manager in the first instance.

If you are a line manager of staff currently working on campus/essential to the student experience, HR will be writing to you shortly asking that you revisit the assessments you made over the summer and to ensure that Risk and Concern conversations are up to date and that appropriate Tier 2 risk mitigations are in place. Advice will be available to you if needed.

With my very best wishes to you and your family,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

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 November – Friday 6 November) webinars are as follows:

Monday 2 November 2020 –  ‘How Care first can support you’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link.

Tuesday 3 November 2020 – ‘Managing Stress & Pressure’
Time: 14.00-14.45 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 4 November 2020 –  ‘Stress, Anxiety & Sleep’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 5 November 2020 – ‘How to keep motivated when you’re feeling stressed’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 6 November 2020 – ‘he links between Nutrition, physical activity and stress’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

The results from the last Athena SWAN submission round have been announced and we are delighted to announce that three new Schools were successful in securing Athena SWAN Bronze.

Congratulations to the School of Anthropology and Conservation, Kent Business School and School of Arts for securing their first Bronze award!

The overall success rate for an award this time round was 82%. You can read more about the Athena SWAN submission and success rate statistics on the Advance HE website.

These results bring the total number of Schools holding an Athena SWAN award to 13. Our current awards holders are:

Division of Arts and Humanities: School of Arts, School of European Culture and Languages, School of History

Division of Natural Sciences: School of Biosciences, Medway School of Pharmacy

Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences: School of Computing, School of Engineering and Digital Arts, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science (Silver)

Division of Human and Social Sciences: School of Anthropology and Conservation, School of Psychology

Division of Study of Law, Society and Social Justice: Kent Law School, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research

Kent Business School 

Congratulations again to our newest award-holders SAC, KBS and Arts! Securing an award is always a result of hard work and commitment to the Athena SWAN principles.

You can find out more about Athena SWAN, including latest news and how you can get involved on Kent’s Athena SWAN webpages.

The Estates Staff Reward Scheme is open again from 1 November 2020, following a temporary suspension due to Covid-19 and lockdown.

The reward scheme was launched in 2017 to recognise Estates staff who have made a difference to colleagues or customers through dedication, innovation, understanding or skill.  Since then, more than 100 awards have been presented.

Award categories

The Customer Services Award is given to a staff member or team who provided a timely and professional service to customers, were responsive to customer needs and requests, were courteous and considered the needs of the customer when making decisions. Nominations are invited from colleagues across the University.

The Staff Excellence Award is given in recognition of a colleague who has shown consistent exemplary performance and has demonstrated integrity and a significant support to their teams in the course of their working day, whilst upholding the spirit of the Estates core values. This category is open to nominations from Estates colleagues only.

The winner/s in each category will each receive a £20 Amazon voucher to be awarded on a monthly basis.

In addition, the winner/s of each category will be entered into the Staff Member of the Year Award. This award will be presented to someone recognised by the Senior Management Team as providing outstanding commitment to the department. Nominees will be selected from the Customer Services Award and the Customer Excellence Award entries. The winner will receive a £100 Amazon voucher and the runner-up, a £50 Amazon voucher.

Nominations

To make a nomination, follow this link on the Estates webpages. Deadline for the November nominations will be Friday 27 November at midday. Any nominations received after the deadline will be rolled over to the following month.

A third public hearing for the Airspace Tribunal – an international forum to consider the case for and against a new human right to protect the freedom to live without physical or psychological threat from above – will be hosted online, from Toronto, next month.

The Airspace Tribunal is a public forum established two years ago by Kent School of Arts  Reader Shona Illingworth and Kent Law School Emeritus Professor Nick Grief.

The public tribunal is examining the impact of accelerating geopolitical, technological and environmental change on the composition, nature and use of airspace, and considering the case for and against a proposed new human right to protect all people from physical or psychological threats from above.

This year’s hearing in Toronto will take place over three two-hour panel discussions via Zoom on:
•       Sunday 1 November (14.00 –16.00) https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bAjf_rYARQa9iJhYgsMmLA
•       Wednesday 4 November (14.00 –16.00) https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2N9Ha14_TuacEUKSWWVITA
•       Saturday 7 November (14.00 –16.00) https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UGG35bQFTiGb2pNQbr-3tA
•       A final one-hour summative session will be held on Saturday 14 November (14.00 –15.00). https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqfuqorTwrG9H-6TDKDEtujPAmasBf6YZJ

All the webinars are free, with times indicated in Eastern Standard Time.
The first webinar will feature presentations by Shona and Nick, together with Kent Law School Reader in International Commercial Law Dr Gbenga Oduntan.

The Toronto hearing of the Airspace Tribunal is co-presented by The Power Plant and the Master of Visual Studies program at the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto.

The Power Plant’s Director, Gaëtane Verna, will Chair each session and Counsel to the Tribunal, Kirsty Brimelow QC of Doughty Street Chambers will pose questions to the Experts. Members of the audience – acting as judges – will also be able to ask questions.

A full programme is available on The Power Plant website.

It was a bumper round of PRIDE Award winners last month with three staff members winning the award.

Congratulations are due to Angela Forsyth (Accommodation Co-ordinator), Keira Hannigan (Chargehand) and Jason Townsend (IT Systems, Development and Support Officer). PRIDE stands for ‘Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence’ and the panel felt that the hard work and dedication of all three exemplified this and could not be ignored, especially where multiple nominations were received for different projects each was working on.

While recognising how hard the entire Accommodation Team have worked throughout the Clearing and Arrivals period, Angela’s nomination singled her out for her ‘tireless’ work and “unflagging efforts” on the Clearing hotline call centre, both in training the team and responding to student calls. Additionally, Angela contributed and helped to implement a new procedure for processing student data in the Accommodation Office that “increases efficiency, is time saving and improves customer service”

Keira’s award recognised her “dedication, consistency, proactiveness, and her willingness to support and assist the Housekeeping Team in their work”. Her nomination focused on a recent three-month period where Keira stepped up to help run and manage one of the college Housekeeping Teams above and beyond her role. Keira has also taken on extra tasks and hours throughout the Covid-19 pandemic so far and has also helped to support new staff starters and has consistently shown why she is a “valued member of the Chargehand team”.

The final winner was a familiar face; however, the panel felt that Jason’s outstanding work producing 14 fully operational tracking devices from scratch for Kent Hospitality’s catering outlets deserved recognition. Jason designed a bespoke computer prototype, tested it, sourced parts and manufactured the final trackers often giving up his own time to ensure the trackers were ready as soon as possible. An extract from his nomination read that his “innovation, devotion and selfless voluntary service” on this project “has made the jobs of the Catering Team easier and safer”.

Many congratulations to Angela, Keira and Jason on their well-deserved wins.

We are sure that there are lots of our staff going above and beyond, so if you know of any Kent Hospitality staff member from either the Canterbury or Medway campus, it is quick and easy to nominate them for a PRIDE Award. To submit a nomination, just visit the PRIDE website and complete our online form.

The award is given in March, June, September/October and December with each winner receiving £100 of shopping vouchers, a certificate and a PRIDE pin badge.

The closing date for the next PRIDE Award is currently Wednesday 2 December 2020 at 12 noon.

Picture shows; Angela, Keira and Jason with their certificates.

Dr Gloria Chamarro, Lecturer in applied linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, has received a grant from the Orange Tree Trust and The Thomas Sivewright Catto Charitable Settlement for her work on The English Hub for Refugees project.

The project helps refugees and asylum seekers gain the English language skills they need in order to integrate into their new communities and access mainstream education and jobs while also allowing University students to gain teaching experience. Apart from the English classes, the project also develops language learning materials for refugees and migrants, which are freely available in our Materials section.

Gloria says: “Thanks to the funding received from the Orange Tree Trust we will be able to continue supporting unaccompanied refugee minors with their language skills so that they can successfully integrate into their new communities and access mainstream education and jobs. It will allow us to continue with our English classes as well as with the development of language learning resources to support these and other migrants for two more academic years.”