Summer housekeeping staff vacancies

We are recruiting team members for Kent Hospitality summer housekeeping for Canterbury campus accommodation, who are available to work between 4 June and 16 September 2018. We will offer a minimum of 80 hours per month during this period. Successful candidates will need to be flexible regarding working days and hours, additional hours may be available.

Rates are:

£8.46 p/hr 16 – 24 years old
£8.97 p/hr 25 years and over (Living Wage)

Some weekend working is required; you must be available to work on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 June 2018.

Successful applicants will be required to:

Complete an online contract and return this by 17 May 2018.
Attend a three hour Health and Safety induction in the week commencing 21 May 2018.

For the health, safety and welfare of staff and conference guests, all successful applicants will be required to attend a health and safety induction. Applicants must be able to demonstrate the required level of understanding in all areas covered in the training. Any staff not achieving the required standard will not be permitted to work.

Start working in the week commencing 4 June 2018 (minimum of two shifts for training).

If you think this summer vacancy is for you, please complete our online questionnaire:

Week and weekend applications: https://kent.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/summerhk2018
Weekend only applications: https://kent.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/summerhk2018weekends

Closing date for applications: 10 May 2018 (or earlier if we receive a large number of applications).

The Kent Hospitality HR department will then email you by Tuesday 15 May to let you know whether or not your application has been successful. Please do not contact the Kent Hospitality HR department to check the status of your application, as they will be unable to answer individual enquiries.

Athena SWAN and Professional Services – Progressing Together-Event on 14 May

Athena SWAN now has a wider reach and includes Professional Services staff in creating a better work environment for everyone.

The Athena SWAN Project Team wants to invite you to a ‘Progressing Together’ event on the 14 May from 12.00-16.00 at Grimond Lecture Theatre, where we can start the conversation; we need your input to make sure we focus on the right things that will make a difference

This event is open for anyone to attend, however, the themes and topics are aimed at University of Kent’s Professional Services and for this reason, we particularly welcome PS members of staff.

Follow the link to register and to learn more: Register here

Simon Elliott interviewed by Dan Snow

Dr Simon Elliott, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, featured on the podcast Dan Snow’s History Hit earlier in the week, following the publication of his third book Septimius Severus in Scotland (Greenhill Books, 2018).

‘The reason why he was there was for the last major attempt to conquer Scotland,’ explains Simon in the podcast, ‘to try to achieve what no emperor had done before’.

Approximately 57,000 soldiers were involved in two campaigns in 209AD and 201AD. ‘Even though he took this enormous army – if not the largest army compiled on British soil – he still failed.’ As a response to these failures, Severus allegedly ordered the genocide of the Scots, which had lasting effects on the country. ‘This is one of the great, great untold stories of British history.’

To listen to the episode, please go to the webpage here.

Additionally, we are running a book competition to win Simon’s first book Sea Eagles of Empire (History Press, 2016), which may be found here.

Leverhulme Fellowship for Axel Stähler

Dr Axel Stähler, Reader in the Department of Comparative Literature, has just been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for a project entitled ‘Jerusalem Destroyed: Literature, Art, and Music in Nineteenth-Century Europe’.

The project proposes to interrogate representations of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE in relation to negotiations of Jewishness in nineteenth-century European cultural production. It encompasses primary material as diverse as drama and historical fiction, paintings, oratorios, operas, and libretti from Germany, Britain, and Italy. Each country produced a specific response to the subject which became manifest in distinctive narrative emphases and in preferences for different media and genres. Situating these developments in their respective cultural-historical, social, and political contexts, the project investigates the individual trajectories of the engagement with the destruction of Jerusalem against cross-cultural and transnational influences and similarities.

For more details about Leverhulme Research Fellowships, please see the page here.

GDPR information sessions – further information

Update from David Nightingale, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost:

Further to my email yesterday, the GDPR information sessions for staff have proved to be very popular and so we have moved the Canterbury venues to Keynes Lecture Theatre 1. If you have tried to register and been told it’s fully booked, you should now be able to book using the links below.

Also, to clarify, all staff from all departments are welcome to attend any session. If you are part of a faculty, you may find it more helpful to attend one focused on your area as the questions in the Q&A portion of the session may be more pertinent to you. Should you be unable to attend, or should your team require bespoke information, please contact the Information Compliance team or the Development Office directly.

The sessions will include an overview of GDPR, what it means for Kent, and how we are preparing. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions. The Information Compliance team and the Development Office will use the sessions to determine the main points of concern for staff in order to develop resources and guidance which will subsequently be made available on the Information Compliance website.

A reminder of the sessions:

Tuesday 17 April 10-11.00, Keynes Lecture Theatre 1 (Social Sciences) Register here.
Friday 20 April 10-11.00, Keynes Lecture Theatre 1 (Humanities) Register here.
Monday 23 April 10-11.00, Keynes Lecture Theatre 1 (Sciences) Register here.
Thursday 26 April 10-11.00, Pilkington Building, Room 130 (All), Register here.
NB change of venue

I hope you will find the sessions useful.

Beware: scams targeted at international students

If you receive an unexpected email, phone call or letter from someone claiming to be from the Home Office, be careful, as it may be a scam.

Some students have been tricked into paying large sums of money to fraudsters. The Home Office has issued new guidance on how to protect yourself from tricks and scams. Please see the Student Immigration Compliance website for details and a link to the guide.

Kent Gives Back in London: volunteers needed

Join the next Kent Gives Back project in London on Saturday 12 May. Kent Gives Back is a community outreach project which unites students and alumni by encouraging them to take part in a local community project such as volunteering at a homeless shelter or a food bank, helping tend to a garden and many more activities.

Walk the Walk is the UK’s largest grant-making breast cancer charity that is dedicated to not only raising money and awareness for vital breast cancer causes, but to also encourage women and men to become more aware of their own potential for fitness and wellbeing. They organise the famous MoonWalk overnight power walking challenges and are immensely proud to have raised over £122m, which has been granted to research into breast cancer and to improve the lives of people living with cancer now.

We are looking for dedicated, amazing volunteers to join us at The MoonWalk London on the evening of 12 May at Clapham Common . Join 15,000 women and men walking either a full or half marathon in their fantastically decorated bras, raising millions of pounds and awareness for breast cancer.

We are hoping to join the Saturday Evening Crew, a busy period when the Walkers & Volunteers arrive. Start times vary depending on the role, but are no earlier than 17.00 and finishing at midnight. The 24 available roles include Baggage, Kitchen and Water Crew. Volunteers will be required to make their own travel arrangements for the evening.

If you’d like to take part please register at the event webpage.

AUDE Conference 2018 showcases Canterbury campus

Peter Czarnomski, Director of Estates, recently hosted the AUDE Conference 2018 (Association of University Directors of Estates) on behalf of the University of Kent. This high profile event provided an opportunity to showcase the Canterbury Campus to more than 140 Directors of Estates across the sector.

Sibson Building provided an outstanding conference venue and over the three-day conference delegates heard from a number of high profile speakers. They included:

PY Gerbeau, serial entrepreneur and famously the ‘saviour’ of the Millenium Dome project
Dame Heather Rabbatts, former chief executive of the London Borough of Lambeth and the first woman to sit on the board of the FA
Sahar Hashemi, OBE, co-founder of Coffee Republic
Jim Lawless, author of ‘Taming Tigers’ and the first Briton to dive below the 100m barrier on a single breath of air
Roger Martin-Fagg, Economist and Rob McClatchey, Chairman of UPP Group Holdings Limited, who presented on ‘The possible financial outcomes of Brexit and how they might impact on the HE Sector’
Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, Chairman of The Historic Dockyard Chatham, who gave a unique insight into what it means to be a TRUE Leader, ‘Meeting the Challenge’

The final morning of the conference saw a highly entertaining presentation from Stephanie Davies, co-founder of Laughology the nation’s most talked-about training and development programme, and finally, Sir Ranulph Fiennes closed the conference with an awe-inspiring journey through just two of his epic expeditions in the last 40 years.

The highlight of the conference on Tuesday night was the AUDE Awards and Gala Dinner at Canterbury Cathedral’s Chapter House, hosted by writer and broadcaster, Gyles Brandreth. Two members of the University of Kent Estates team were recognised at the awards.

Sarah Cooke, Head of Customer Services and Engagement, was Highly Commended in the Chair’s Award for Long Term Contribution. Sarah was reocgnised for continually developing her role and contributing within the Estates Department, the University as a whole, and to the local community. Sarah joined the Estates Department in 1989. She was shortlisted alongside three long-standing University Directors of Estates.

Emily Mason, Environmental Sustainability Assistant, was Highly Commended in the Emerging Talent Award category, for her project, Futureproof. It uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for staff and students from across the University to assess the impact of their activities and create bespoke, targeted action plans to improve. By developing Futureproof, Emily has delivered something with far wider-reaching impacts than we had ever envisaged.

Simon Fanshawe, OBE co-founder and partner of Diversity by Design expertly steered the conference through to a successful conclusion on Wednesday morning.

The AUDE Conference 2019 will take place at the University of Lancaster (University of the Year 2018). This year’s event was organised by Assured Events, Manchester.

Postgrad Writing Retreat

SLAS will be holding its annual postgrad writing retreat on 14 and 15 June at Brenley Farm Bunk Barn.

This is a residential event open to all postgrad students at Kent. It provides a structured and supportive environment for students to work on their dissertation or thesis.

Places on the retreat cost £20.00. This includes all food and accommodation. Register online. For further information please contact ljf@kent.ac.uk

KentVision Open Forums – Sign Up Now!

The KentVision Programme invites you to one or more of our Open Forums – sign-up is open now so save a place while they’re still available!

As we prepare and transition to KentVision there is lots to share. With at least one event each month, we’ll cover enough ground that there is something of interest for everyone.

Always on a Wednesday afternoon from 14.00 to 17.00, dates, agendas and everything else you need to know is available here.

Broadly the same each month, at the Innovation Centre in Canterbury we’ll start with a welcome including refreshments and an opportunity to open discussions before attendees split roughly equally across two rooms. Two sessions run in parallel to offer a choice and if you just can’t choose, go to both! Each session is repeated for you to swap rooms and see everything there is on offer in a group size inviting of interaction.

At Medway, a more traditional event with presentations and demonstrations held in one room, still with a generous portion of time for networking, discussion and of course refreshments.

We hope you’re able to join us, but places are limited, so we ask you let us know you’re coming by signing up.

We look forward to seeing you at a Forum soon!

Don’t know much about the KentVision Programme yet? There’s lots of resources online to get a feel for the coming changes, understand what the Programme is doing and what that means for you. And you can always get in touch.

Want a better grasp of the wider changes related to the move to KentVision? Check out our Student Lifecycle Library, it starts with a number of overarching concepts to get to grips with, and will quickly grow to include much more information on Student Lifecycle Administration.