Learning and Organisational Development are running an Attendance Management training session at the Canterbury Campus on Thursday 14 March, from 09.30-12.30.

For further information, and to book a place, please visit your Staff Connect Dashboard.

Please book your place by Monday 11 March,12 noon.

There will be a traditional church service for the beginning of Lent, with Communion and ‘Ashing’, in Eliot College Chapel at 12.30pm on Wednesday 6 March.

The 35-minute service will be led by Revd Dr Stephen Laird, Anglican Chaplain. Christian students and staff of all traditions are welcome to attend. [Note: Catholic students can take part and receive the imposition of ashes even if they feel that they are not in a position receive the Sacrament].

Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning and Teaching Network session taking place on Wednesday 13 March 2019, from 13.15-14.30 in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury.

Dr Patricia Lewis, Reader in Management, Kent Business School will present this session on ‘Online resources for enhanced interaction’.

The session aims to explore and discuss the process of creating and adapting learning and teaching resources for online, distance learning. We will look at the case study of the KBS undergraduate module ‘Introduction to Management’, which is taught both on campus in Canterbury and online as part of the Higher and Degree Apprenticeship provision.

The development of resources designed to enhance online interaction must focus on providing opportunities and purposeful activities to stimulate student exchanges. This resulted in creating a set of materials that also benefited the face-to-face module, as they offered new opportunities to re-think approaches to content delivery.

The session will be interactive and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss their experience and examples.

If you have not already confirmed your attendance and wish to attend, please complete the  booking form  on our Teaching webpages.

On Monday 11 March, Q-Step at Kent is very pleased to welcome Hind Elhinnawy from the University of Kent to give a pubTALK entitled, ‘Secular Muslim Women’s Activism in the Age of ISIS’.

The talk will take place at The Old Buttermarket, Canterbury, at 19.00 for 19.30.  All are welcome – come and share a drink and join in the discussion!

Experiencing abuse, harassment, and sometimes death threats from ‘radical Islamists’, and accused of collaborating with Western imperialism by importing alien ideas and practices, secular Muslim women activists challenge discriminatory laws within Islamic texts, reject and condemn the jihadist political message, and assert that human rights laws have precedence over religious and cultural considerations.

In this presentation, Hind Elhinnawy will focus on two organisations run by two secular Muslim women activists; “Inspire” a counter-extremism and women’s rights organisation; and “Mother’s Brigade” a French organisation that provides support for traumatised mothers of foreign fighters working to save children from recruitment in extremist and jihadist groups. In doing so, she hopes to unravel many of the tensions, conflicts and ambiguities that mark the nature of activism of Muslim women in the West opposing what they define as “violent Islamist Extremism”.

As Brexit negotiations continue towards the UK leaving the EU on 29 March, we have arranged legal briefings which will be delivered by Kevin Smyth from Kesar & Co Solicitors.

It is hoped that the position of the UK leaving the EU, legislative changes and the impact on EEA citizens and their family members will be clearer by the time of the briefings so that they can be explained and discussed.

Each briefing will include an opportunity for informal discussions with colleagues, HR and Kevin Smyth.

Staff are asked to express an interest in one session only using the Doodle event. As spaces are limited to 50 attendees per session (30 spaces at Medway), staff are advised to submit their interest as soon as possible to secure a place.

Sessions will be held as follows:

• Monday 18 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11.30, Canterbury Campus
• Tuesday 19 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11:30 and 13.30 to 15.00, Canterbury Campus
• Friday 22 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11.30 and 13.30 to 15.00, Canterbury Campus
• Monday 25 March 2019 – 10.00 to 11.30 and 13.30 to 15.00, Canterbury Campus
• Tuesday 26 March 2019 -10.00 to 11.30, Medway Campus

A Brexit Staff Newsletter (February 2019) has also been produced which provides useful legislative and news updates, along with contacts and resources for further information.

Further Brexit information and resources can be found on our Kent and Brexit webpages.

From Monday 11 March 2019,  Postal Services will be operating a new timetable for deliveries and collections at the Canterbury campus.

A copy of the timetable for your building can be found on the Estates Department’s website or by clicking here.

If you have outgoing business post which needs to leave the campus after the scheduled delivery/collection time for your building, Postal Services will still accept it if it is brought to the Post Room between 09.00 and 15.00, Monday to Friday (with the exception of Bank Holidays).

In addition to this, the Postal Counter Service, open to all staff and students, will be changing its opening hours to 13.00 to 14.00, Monday to Friday. General advice and information on sending personal post and packages can be found on the Postal Services web page.

Please contact Estates Customer Services on ext 16666, or by email if you have any questions regarding this.

Estates Customer Services

The Community Scholarships programme, previously known as Medway Community Scholarships, was opened to all students registered at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses in 2018-19, from all stages, disciplines and modes of study. Thus far we have received 100 application pack requests this academic year with the following breakdowns:

Campus
Medway = 16
Canterbury = 77
Not currently registered = 7

Degree level
UG = 60
PG = 33
Not currently registered = 7

Twenty one percent of students who requested the pack submitted an application form for consideration; two of which were successful in the autumn term at obtaining the full reward and two in the spring term, with all four students being based at Canterbury.

The two scholarships awarded in the autumn term were Art at Heart and Music for Change.

Grace Lau, a first year Psychology student manages the project, Art at Heart, a series of ten art and craft workshops for year 3 and 4 pupils at Pilgrim’s Way Primary School with learning difficulties and/or low confidence. The workshop objectives are to improve emotional wellbeing and self-confidence of the pupils through art making, introducing alternative ways for them to express themselves.

Aida Sharaf, a second year Drama and Film student is organising a concert called Music for Change that aims to raise awareness of mental health, domestic abuse, drug abuse and social inequality/discrimination through the lyrics. The hope is the “concert will give a platform of expression to people who are struggling with issues that are not discussed as much as they should be. Many students and young adults struggle with mental health, abuse and social inequality/discrimination but sometimes can feel like they are trapped. I have found that art allows people to be expressive which can be an outlet for a lot of these suppressed issues.” Music for Change is looking for a new venue due to emergency maintenance being carried out at the Gulbenkian Theatre in March 2019.

Our successful scholars in the spring term, thus far, include the projects From the Cubby and the Keynes Sustainability Scholar.

Joe Spence, a postgraduate in his second year studying for a PhD in Social Anthropology, will be using current footage to create an ethnographic film, From the Cubby, that will be screened later this year, to raise awareness of homelessness and resettlement in Canterbury. The film “will explore some of the problems people experience when they become housed, and are faced with the prospect of untangling themselves from social networks associated with homelessness and addiction“, with the aim being to “foster dialogue across organisations, bringing stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds together to discuss the policies and practises associated with homeless resettlement programmes.”

Jane Zhuk, a first year Biochemistry student was awarded the Keynes College Sustainability Scholarship project, the first of its kind, which was initiated by the Master of Keynes College, Chloe Gallien and Emily Mason, with the objective of ​initiating, engaging and supporting sustainability actions at Keynes College.

The Community Scholarships is closed for applications for 2018-19 and will re-open in September 2019 for the academic year 2019-20. Special circumstances may be given for small-scale projects. Please contact Debbie Worthington, Student Activities and Scholarships Officer, communityscholarships@kent.ac.uk for further information. In the meantime you can read about the scholarship on our website: https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentservices/studentlife.html​