From Nikki Hyde | Deputy Director HR and Organisational Development

Following last night’s update, the Met Office has upgraded the weather warning for the South East to ‘Red’, meaning they expect significant disruption and dangerous conditions due to the wind. As a result, to ensure safety our Canterbury and Medway campuses should be considered closed today. Do not come onto campus unless you have been classified as an essential worker and are required on campus for the ongoing safety of students and staff.  

Teaching and Research  

All teaching should be moved online wherever possible, with in-person labs etc postponed. Any research activity that cannot take place online should also be cancelled today. Teaching staff should communicate clearly with students what the online arrangements will be – please contact your Divisional Education teams if you require further guidance.  

We will also be contacting all students to confirm these measures are in place.  

For those that need to come onto campus  

If your role requires you to be on campus, such as those in certain roles in Hospitality or Estates, please liaise with your line managers and avoid travel between the peak storm hours of 10.00 – 15.00. You can also refer to the Adverse Travel Advice from our Transport Team for guidance on how to travel as safely as possible.  

Key teams will be on campus to support students and complete all necessary checks throughout the day. We will also provide a further update later today if the situation changes.  

The Templeman Library is closed but online support remains available. See Templeman Library update for more details. 

Thanks everybody – and stay safe,  

Nikki

Nikki Hyde | Deputy Director HR and Organisational Development

Congratulations to Professor Adrian Podoleanu from the Division of Natural Sciences for his appointment as a member of the executive committee of the International Commission for Optics (ICO), as Associated Secretary. This is from a secret vote of worldwide territories of the ICO after the ICO General Assembly on the 13^th September 2021. Professor Podoleanu will hold this post for the next three years.

“I can bring to ICO my enthusiasm to serve the community of Optics and identify modalities to match the expectation of society members to the best that ICO can deliver in an ever changing world.” –  Taken from Professor Podoleanu’s statement in support of his election.

Professor Podoleanu has a long association with the ICO having been elected Chair of the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Optics in 2017, 2018, 2019 and again in 2021. He was also one of the eight elected Vice-Presidents from 2017-2021.

The role of Associated Secretary involves continuous activity with emphasis on two aspects.  One being a judge for applications to conferences submitted by ICO territories. There are two deadlines for application in April and October. You can find further information under the sponsorship page on the ICO website.

The second is looking at the landscape of ICO prizes, given the new affiliation of the ICO to the International Council of Science, which Professor Podoleanu says needs ‘delving into more’. Plus, this year is the 75th anniversary of the ICO, hence there will be more work for the bureau soon.

ICO is an international society, territories can be seen at: http://www.e-ico.org/blog/

The Bureau is at http://www.e-ico.org/blog/about/people/

Written by Dr Geoffery Kohe and Dr Niki Koutrou.

University of Kent Sport Management and Policy Senior Lecturer, Dr Geoffery Z. Kohe, along with Dr Niki Koutrou (Honorary Academic in Sport Management), have had a substantive new report published on the development and sustainability of sport and volunteer cultures within post-Olympic city spaces. Entitled ‘Reawakening sport and community engagement in a previous Olympic host city: Capitalising on the Athens 2004 Olympic Volunteer Legacy 17 years on’, the report has been produced as part of the International Olympic Committee Olympic Studies Centre’s Advanced Research Programme.

Following from Dr Kohe and Dr Koutrou’s expertise and research in Olympic Games legacies, sport organisation politics and volunteer management, the report contributes a critical examination of how sport, volunteer and wider third-sector organisations are currently positioned to service the city’s diverse contemporary needs. Offering the most recent critical interrogation of stakeholders’ experiences of the sport mega-event’s frequently lauded positive legacy, the work also provides original insights into the realities of sector work and civic development in post-Olympic Games environments.

The project has been based on extensive archival and documentary research, qualitative surveys, and extensive interviews carried out with 19 sport, civil society and third sector professionals and organisations in Athens, Greece, and Europe. Interviews included former and current national and civic political figures, sustainability and volunteer sector professionals, organisational leaders within the Athens 2004 Organising Committee or the wider Olympic movement and sport, and large charitable/philanthropic organisations who held or were currently responsible for sector delivery and resourcing.

The data led to several key findings and recommendations, including the significance of human resource investments, landscape and stakeholder mapping, development of strong leadership structures, effective resource management, good governance, contextual responsiveness, and capacity building. In immediate and post-Olympic/sport mega-event planning, the findings underscore the need for more specific long-term planning, consultation, and involvement of the existing volunteer sector in community engagement beyond the event, and resourcing to sustain sector interest and momentum. Beyond sport, the research contributes to modelling how more sustainable cross-sector partnerships can be built and maintained to support a wider array of humanitarian needs and concerns.

With the project carried out during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the findings also now hold extra resonance in affording insights in how sport and volunteer sector resilience could be established, and sustainability fostered among organisational networks. As Dr Kohe and Dr Koutrou note: ‘the experiences of cities such as Athens in finding ways to support third-sector work in times of increased adversity and uncertainty are shared across the world. Of particular importance we found in our research was the ability of organisations to remain optimistic, engage in collaboration, mobilise and share  human, social capital and resource and build capacity to strategically mitigate and ameliorate a whole variety of local and global challenges’.

Following recognition of their work by the IOC and regional sport and sustainability stakeholder Dr Kohe and Dr Koutrou are now continuing their collaborations and research across wider Europe.

The report is freely available via the link below.

Olympic World Library – Reawakening sport and community engagement in a previous Olympic Host City : capitalising on the Athens 2004 Olympic volunteer legacy 17 years on / Niki Koutrou, Geoffery Z. Kohe – Detail (olympics.com)

Dr Geoffery Z. Kohe is Senior Lecturer in Sport Management & Policy at the University of Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Working with Olympic and professional sport bodies, his recent work on the Olympic movement and the professional sport industry has examined sport museums and heritage production, sport mega-event legacies, organisational cultures, and sport workers’ experiences.

Based at the University of Bournemouth, Dr Niki Koutrou is an Honorary Academic in Sport Management at the University of Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Working with global and regional sport and third-sector stakeholders, her work covers sport mega-event legacies, sport volunteering and volunteer cultures within the United Kingdom and wider Europe.

From Martin Atkinson | Director of HR and Organisational Development

Yesterday was the first day of a second period of national strike action by members of the University and College Union (UCU) over pensions and over staff pay and conditions. The strikes are scheduled for: 

1. 14 to 18 February and 21 to 22 February
2. 28 February to 2 March 

Teams have been working together across the University to minimise any disruption to students and staff, with further information available on the student webpages. There is also guidance for those UCU members who intend to join the strike action.  

As I have outlined before, these are national disputes over which we have limited influence – however, we take them all very seriously here at Kent and are continuing to work constructively with local union colleagues on the things we can change.  

While recognising differences in opinion, I was pleased that we were able to keep disruption to a minimum during the strike days in December and hope for the same constructive approach during the coming days. As I said before, we all want what is best for Kent and will continue our talks with the Union to find resolution at a local level, while working hard to make real improvements to life at work for all our staff. 

We will keep you updated with any developments during the period of industrial action.    

The Medway Learning and Teaching Festival is jointly organised by the University of Kent, University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University. The aims of the festival are to share, celebrate and promote best practice across the Medway campus.

This year the festival will be held on Thursday 15 September on the Medway campus.

The theme for 2022 is Student Voice and how we can best listen and respond to those we hear and those we do not hear. This is a consistently strong theme in the sector and a priority for all three universities and collaborative partners. The Student Voice has been brought increasingly into focus since we have moved back to on-campus teaching and are working together to create a vibrant student and staff experience in Medway.

As in previous Medway Learning and Teaching Festivals, the event enables us to reflect on our own development needs and career aspirations as we start the new academic year. Attending or presenting can help colleagues to evidence professional development or maintain ‘good standing’ for Advance HE.

Call for workshop proposals

We are now inviting practitioners, researchers, students and staff to offer ideas for sessions ranging in length from 20 minutes to an hour. Co-authored presentations with students are particularly encouraged.

We welcome contributions on practices that:

• Foster student engagement on-campus
• Promote communities of learning, student belonging and inclusion
• Demonstrate collaborative approaches to learning and teaching
• Facilitate authentic engagement between staff and students

Please send the proposed title and brief summary of your session to Annikki Laitinen A.Laitinen@kent.ac.uk by 17:00 on 17 June 2022.

Kent Unicorns, a netball team made up of staff from the university, are taking on the BRIT challenge for February to raise vital funds for student mental health charities. 

The team are walking, running, swimming, or cycling to contribute towards Team Kent Uni in covering 2022 miles from 1^st February – 3^rd March.  This initiative is being coordinated by Kent Sport to raise vital funds for student mental health charities.

The team boosted their total by 70 miles through a Power Hour on Thursday 10^th February, where they creatively adapted their usual training session with spin bikes and drills to increase the distance.

‘Mental health is something that we cannot ignore and should be supporting, especially at universities. I am delighted that the Unicorns can participate and get involved in such a worthwhile cause’ – Emma Marku, Vice-Captain and Internationalisation Officer.

Kent staff are encouraged to get involved in the challenge.  More details can be found at https://www.kent.ac.uk/sports/brit-challenge

You can also donate to the challenge by visiting the JustGiving link on the British Inspiration Trust (BRIT) Challenge website https://www.justgiving.com/britishinspiration

If you are a member of staff interested in playing Netball, come along to ALL Active Social Netball every Monday lunchtime, 12.30-1.30pm in the Sports Centre. Kent Sport membership required. Minimum membership £2 per session with pay to play membership. For more information, please see website or follow @ALLActiveKent on Facebook, twitter, Instagram or TikTok for updates.