Launch of new Academic Career Map

The Academic Career Map (ACM) will be launched, alongside a revised Academic Promotion Policy, to take effect in September 2019.

ACM is a framework setting out relevant expectations, supporting development and recognising achievements at each academic career stage. The related changes to the Academic Promotion Policy will mean significant changes to the promotion application process for academic staff on Teaching & Research, Teaching & Scholarship and Research contracts.

Academic staff are invited to find out more about ACM at one of several staff information sessions taking place during May and June. The team behind ACM will also be visiting some schools, but if one is not yet scheduled, you could attend one of our open-invitation sessions. Dates for all planned sessions, from 8 May to 21 June, are available now on the ACM webpages

The ACM was developed in partnership with academic and academic-related staff, through the Recognising Excellence in Academia Project, with the aim of providing greater clarity around expectations. The proposed detail was shared with all staff through the University website and several staff engagement and consultation events in November/December 2018. Helpful feedback resulted in the ACM being finalised and approved by relevant committees. The Academic Promotion Policy has been revised to align with the ACM framework and introduce other changes to address feedback received from staff throughout the project.

To find out more about the ACM framework, and guidance on how it will work, see the ACM webpages

If you have any comments or questions, please email academiccareermap@kent.ac.uk

Read the latest Leadership Bulletin (31 October 2018)

The latest issue of the Leadership Bulletin, designed to give an overview of key developments at Kent, is now available.

The latest issue (31 October 2018) includes a summary by our Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Karen Cox of discussions held at the latest Senior Leadership Forum including the University Structures Project as well as her visit to the University’s Beacon Observatory.

There is also an update on Executive Group meetings, information on KentVision from Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, David Nightingale plus an analysis of the Autumn budget.

The Bulletin is distributed fortnightly to all members of the Leadership Forum to cascade to staff in schools and professional service departments. If you haven’t received your copy yet, you can read the bulletin online.

Find out more about the Leadership Bulletin and see previous issues on the OVC webpages.

Volunteers still needed for congregations

The Corporate Events team is looking for volunteers to help during congregations for Medway and Canterbury – can you help?

MEDWAY (Rochester Cathedral):

Wednesday 21 November (x2 ceremonies), 10:30, 14:30

CANTERBURY (Canterbury Cathedral):

Friday 23 November (x3 ceremonies) 10:30, 14:30, 19:30

This is a special day for all of our graduating students, and a great opportunity to be involved in a feel-good University event.

We have a variety of roles available for volunteers, so whether you would like to be in the Cathedral for the ceremony, helping the graduands check-in, or managing the guest queue, there is something suitable for everyone.

Things to know:

– Volunteers working two consecutive ceremonies will be provided with lunch or dinner in between their two shifts

– Volunteers can choose any ceremony ‘shifts’ from the above list, and full training will be available for your designated role.

– In any role, there will be a member of the congregations’ team on hand to support you

– Different roles will have different start and finish times due to the requirements of that role for the ceremony

– It’s a wonderful week and is a great opportunity to see any students that you have supported graduate

If you would like to get involved in November 2018 Congregations, we would be delighted to have you!

To register your interest or to find out more about the roles available, please email congregations@kent.ac.uk with your preferred ceremony/ies or your query.

Launch of new Wellbeing Zone website and app for Kent staff

From today (Thursday 1 November 2018), all University staff can benefit from accessing a new Wellbeing Zone website and app, specially created for colleagues at Kent.

Go to the new Wellbeing Zone website now to register, take a look and download the app! Register using the code KENT 1, or log-in (top right-hand button) using your Kent sign-in details.

The Wellbeing Zone is a free tool to help you learn more about all aspects of wellbeing and you can use it to better manage your own health and wellbeing.

The Zone features a 12 sector wellbeing assessment and offers advice on how to improve in all these 12 areas. You can make changes and goals and re-assess to follow your progress.

The Zone includes exercise programmes, weight loss advice, recipes and a calorie counter. There are also articles, videos and TED talks on all aspects of wellbeing including mental health, mindfulness and stress reduction.

The Zone has been set up and will be maintained by external specialists, Revitalised, whose other clients include Royal Mail, the MoD and Virgincare.

All the information you enter into the Wellbeing Zone is totally confidential and not accessible to any University department or individual. Revitalised provide quarterly anonymised usage statistics to Occupational Health and Student Support & Wellbeing (SSW); SSW have provided the Wellbeing Zone for students for many years and it is now available as a sister site for staff.

Condolences for John Butler

The University is very sorry to have received the news of the death of John Butler, former Master of Darwin College, Lecturer in Politics and Local Government and Social Sciences Faculty Admissions Officer.

John was appointed lecturer in 1969, was Master from 1982 to 1987 and Admissions Officer from 1991-93 and is remembered with great fondness by colleagues across academic schools and professional services.

His funeral will be on Friday 16 November at 12.00 at St Thomas’ Catholic Church, Burgate, Canterbury. Any former colleagues wishing to attend are most welcome.

We hope to publish a fuller tribute to John next week.

Congratulations to Dominique Carlini Versini

The Department of Modern Languages is delighted to announce that Dominique Carlini Versini has completed her Phd in French under the supervision of Dr Thomas Baldwin and Dr Katja Haustein.

Dominique’s Phd thesis, entitled ‘Le Corps-frontière: figures de l’excès dans les fictions de Marie Darrieussecq, Virginie Despentes, Laurence Nobécourt et Marina de Van’, looks at excessive representations of the body in the texts and films of four contemporary French women writers and filmmakers. By analysing bodily excess in literature and ‘Extreme Cinema’, the thesis brings together two approaches in literary and cinematic scholarly criticism in French studies, that had been conceived of separately so far.

Looking specifically at texts and films, the thesis seeks to analyse the various modes through which the two mediums enter in contact and reinvent the body. In that way, it aims to deliver a political and aesthetic reflection on corporeality while developing an intermedial poetics that reveals the multiple connections between the two art forms.

Our congratulations to Dr Carlini-Versini.

Interested in postgraduate study at the University of Kent? Find out more about the Phd in French.

Congratulations to Erik Van Aken

The Department of Philosophy is delighted to announce that Erik Van Aken has completed his Phd in Philosophy under the supervision of Professor John Williamson and Dr David Corfield.

In his thesis, titled ‘Causal Interactionism: A New Agency Approach to Causation’, Erik proposes that causation is dependent on the interaction between human agents and the physical world. He argues against the influential ‘objectivist’ claim that causation is a mind-independent, natural phenomenon, and instead demonstrates that causation is connected to human activities (including a specific form of reasoning). He defends the proposition that causation is relative to context, or a ‘frame of reference’, which is ground by human agency. The emerging picture reveals that the causal relation is objective and consistent with scientific theory, but visible only by assimilating the contours of human agency.

Our congratulations to Dr Van Aken.

Interested in postgraduate study at the University of Kent? Find out more about the PhD in Philosophy.

Vegan options at Kent Hospitality’s outlets in Canterbury and Medway

Kent Hospitality have updated their blogpost containing all vegan options available in their outlets for the 2018/19 academic year in time for World Vegan Day on Thursday 1st November 2018.

From vegan pizzas to bean chillis and katsu curries, there are plenty of tasty options for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A handy guide covering all the vegan options available at Kent Hospitality’s catering outlets across Canterbury and Medway can be found on UniKentFood’s latest blog post.

For any enquiries contact catering@kent.ac.uk

Benefits Management Toolkit now available

The BIPU team have developed a Benefits Management Toolkit for staff managing projects/change.

Benefits are the reason for undertaking work – you are doing it in order to get something out at the end! To ensure that the investment into projects and change at Kent are worthwhile, we must endeavour to keep on top of Benefits Management.

It is critically important that the benefits to be achieved by the work are articulated as clearly as possible and that these are actively monitored and managed for successful delivery.

The new Benefits Management Toolkit is embedded within the Kent Project Management Framework (KPMF) which you can access via SharePoint here.

The detail of Benefits Management activity and documents can be scaled in accordance to the project or change activity taking place, such as larger more significant work requiring greater detail. However, benefits management is enormously valuable to smaller projects and more local change activity – undertaking some level of work to identify, understand and plan work around achieving measurable benefits will provide a framework to help you manage challenges and change along the way.

The Benefits Management Toolkit consists of:

A Benefits Tutorial introducing Benefits Management and the documents and tools available to help you identify, document, plan for, manage and deliver benefits at Kent.
The Benefits Management Cycle setting out a high level summary of how Benefits Management aligns with the KPMF at Kent.
The Benefits Management Strategy
A Benefits Map example from a project at Kent.
A Benefits and Measures Guide providing examples of types of benefits and how you might measure these.

The KPMF is available to all staff and you will find a suite of useful documentation to help you manage project delivery and change.

For further information contact the BIPU team: bipu@kent.ac.uk

Congratulations to Dr Sophie Vanhoutte

The Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies is delighted to announce that Sophie Vanhoutte has completed her PhD in Classical & Archaeological Studies under the supervision of Dr Stephen Willis. The PhD is entitled ‘Change and Continuity at the Roman Fort at Oudenburg from the late 2nd until the early 5th century AD, with a particular focus on the evidence of the material culture and its significance within the wider context of the Roman North Sea and Channel Frontier zone’.

In the later Roman period, the North Sea region was the scene of seaborne attacks, political crises, army reforms, Germanic invasions and imperial defence strategies. As a consequence, the defence of the shores became increasingly important. However, this history remains little understood.

Sophie’s research contributes to the big questions of later Antiquity in the North-West: what changed when, and what did it mean? The changes had impact on the lives of soldiers and their interaction with other forts and with the region. Sophie’s research explores what was changing on a military level in this frontier region by looking at the material culture and by studying find contexts as reflections of the socio-cultural world.

Our congratulations to Dr Vanoutte.

Interested in postgraduate study at the University of Kent? Find out more about the PhD in Classical & Archaeological Studies.