The Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce is hosting the Kent B2B Medway on Thursday 20th September 2018 at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. It is an opportunity to speak to Kent businesses from a variety industries and make new connections.
It is a free event on all day (08:30 – 16.00) so pop in before, after or in between classes.
There will be signs up around the Dockyard but the event itself will be taking place at No 3 Slip.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
The PRIDE (Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence) Award recognises members of Kent Hospitality staff who go out of their way to deliver excellent customer service.
Any Kent Hospitality staff member (permanent or casual) may be nominated from Canterbury and Medway campuses. The award is given out four times a year with each winner receiving £100 of shopping vouchers, a certificate and badge.
Nominations can be made by any member of University staff, students or visitors. Make your nomination online or alternatively you can pick up a paper form next to the red nomination boxes located in all Kent Hospitality’s catering outlets in Canterbury and Medway, as well College reception areas.
The closing date for submitting your nominations is before 12.00 pm on Wednesday 26 September.
Please make your nominations detailed, providing as much information as possible why the nominee is being put forward for a Pride Award. The panel are looking for staff who achieve more than just what is expected in their role (i.e. hardworking, professional, positive and friendly attitude).
Congratulations to March’s Pride Award winner – Dave Jordan, Health & Safety and Food Safety Advisor.
For further information or for guidance on submitting nominations please contact: pride@kent.ac.uk
Think you can’t run? Surprise yourself!
Kent Sport is bringing you the Couch to 5K ‘I can go the distance’ challenge. It has been especially designed for people who have done little or no running.
In this 12-week plan, you will work on your running and by the final week you will be running for half an hour, or approximately 5K. You won’t be on your own as our enthusiastic staff will be with you every step of the way to help you achieve your target. This challenge builds in time and effort, so you’ll constantly be impressed with what you can do if you push yourself a little.
For this term, we will continue to have two sessions a week to support you in your goal to achieving the challenge. You are welcome to attend one or both of the sessions each week.
SESSION 1:
Starting on Monday 24 September, 17.10-18.00 – meet at Sports Centre reception – weekly for 12 weeks.
SESSION 2:
Starting on Wednesday 26 September, 12.10-13.00 – meet at Sports Centre reception – weekly for 12 weeks.
Please note the 50-minute sessions include warm up, cool down, stretches and you therefore won’t be active for the full 50 minutes. There’s no need to register, just turn up and meet at the Sports Centre Reception and we will welcome you. Comfy clothing and footwear are advisable.
The sessions are free for Gold and Silver members, or you join Kent Sport for £5 with Bronze membership and pay £2 per session.
‘I wanted to say a big thank you for your support and motivation to achieve the 5k on Monday evening. I am not just saying it but I sincerely believe I wouldn’t have done it otherwise!’ – Past participant.
Questions about the challenge can be directed to sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk and membership enquiries to memberships@kent.ac.uk.
An accessible product or service is one that can be used by all its intended users. Products that are designed inclusively will be readily adaptable to the different needs of a wide range of users and the technologies they will be using.
Student Support and Wellbeing (SSW) and the Procurement team from Kent have been leading a project with the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) to improve the accessibility of digital products and services. In collaboration with the SUPC, Jisc and the Government Digital Service (GDS) we have developed two documents: a SUPC accessibility statement and a toolkit which define the strategy going forward for all SUPC members and suppliers to apply to new purchases. Both documents can be found on the SUPC website.
The SUPC is a national buying organisation for the Higher Education sector with a framework expenditure of £412m. This work builds on the accessible procurement work already undertaken at Kent by the Information Services requirements team.
An example of one of the questions for suppliers in the SUPC toolkit is: Have the resources been tested with users that have a range of accessibility needs using a range of assistive technologies (AT)? Considering all users’ needs at the procurement stage is vital for instilling a culture that accessibility matters and is a key criterion that should be embedded as standard. This is in line with the Government Digital Services’ approach that: ‘Accessible design is good design’ and that products that are designed for everyone are simply better products.
To find out more about how this can help you in your role at Kent please contact Ashley Shelbrooke (a.g.shelbroooke@kent.ac.uk) and Ben Watson (b.watson@kent.ac.uk).
Welcome back! If you’re returning to Kent after the summer break, here’s a helpful summary for settling back in.
Have a great 2018-2019 at Kent!
The e-learning team are excited to offer colleagues the opportunity to participate in a pilot of the Ombea audience response (in-class voting) system to facilitate the enhancement of learning and teaching and other School practices.
If you are interested in finding out more please come along to the e-learning forum on Tuesday 25 September, 12.00 -13.30 in the UELT seminar room where there will be a brief demonstration and opportunity to discuss potential engagement with the pilot and the ways in which Ombea could enhance existing learning and teaching and other School practices.
Further details are available here.
Please email cpdbookings@kent.ac.uk to book a place.
Dr Benjamin Vis, Eastern ARC Research Fellow (Digital Humanities) in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has just published a new book entitled Cities Made of Boundaries: Mapping Social Life in Urban Form (UCL Press, 2018). The book has been made freely available for all through Open Access.
The book presents the theoretical foundation and concepts for a new social scientific urban morphological mapping method, Boundary Line Type (BLT) Mapping. Its vantage is a plea to establish a frame of reference for radically comparative urban studies positioned between geography and archaeology. Based in multidisciplinary social and spatial theory, a critical realist understanding of the boundaries that compose built space is operationalised by a mapping practice utilising Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
He gives a precise account of how BLT Mapping can be applied to detailed historical, reconstructed, contemporary, and archaeological urban plans, exemplified by 16th to 21st-century Winchester (UK) and Classic Maya Chunchucmil (Mexico). This account demonstrates how the functional and experiential difference between compact western and tropical dispersed cities can be explored.
The methodological development of Cities Made of Boundaries will appeal to readers interested in the comparative social analysis of built environments, and those seeking to expand the evidence-base of design options to structure urban life and development.
For full details, to either purchase copy or download an Open Access PDF, please see the publisher’s page here.
One of the public engagement projects funded by the Understanding Unbelief programme led by Dr Lois Lee, Research Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies, featured in the British Library‘s (BL) Sound and Vision blog this week, part of the project undertaken by Paul Merchant on ‘Unbelief in Life Story Interviews’.
The article focuses on the BBC’s Millennium Oral History project, which recorded an interview with an 11-year-old girl describing her atheism in 1999.
‘The clip is engaging not just because the interviewee is charmingly open and positive,’ explains Paul in the post, ‘it is also because it seems to wake us up from a strange dream in which the only people who talk about atheism are rather senior, male intellectuals of one sort or another.’
To read the British Library blog post, click here.
The University of Kent work with ByCycle to provide low cost bicycle hire to all students attending the Canterbury campus.
All bicycles available are second hand and have either been abandoned onsite or given to the University. Each bicycle has been security tagged and is registered to the University of Kent. They all come equipped with lights, a bell, and a lock, and have received a full service – they are as good as new and are ready to ride!
To hire a bicycle for the autumn term, Canterbury students should visit the Cycle Hub at the Pavilion on the following dates between 10.00 and 15.00:
Bicycles can be hired for £40 per term, alongside a security deposit of £60. The deposit will be refunded when you return the bicycle in good condition.
If any Medway students wish to hire a bicycle, they can do so from Liberty Quays accommodation.
For more information visit www.kent.ac.uk/transport/cycling or www.easybycycle.co.uk
If you’re wondering how to spend your time at the University of Kent, what would be fun and where to meet new people, then you’ll want to know about these free events open to all. Kent Sport and Kent Union hope you can join us to try something different at the University of Kent Canterbury campus through Welcome Week and beyond. Get a taste of Kent Sport at these free events and make the most of our Student Saver membership offer to stay active all year!
Events are varied and include:
Check out the full timetable of exciting free activities and just turn up and join in, membership not required.
To get up to date with Kent Sport news and events, find UniKentSports on social media and visit the Kent Sport events calendar to see what else is on.