Tag Archives: Campus online

Student Services CARE Awards winners 2018

We are delighted to share the winners of the Student Services CARE Awards 2018, which recognises the achievements and excellence of staff members who embody the values of Student Services. This year’s winners across the five awards categories are:

Empowerment and Innovation Award: Anna Edgar-Chan (Counsellor, Student Support and Wellbeing), for her outstanding contributions to Student Support and Wellbeing including introducing e-therapy options and reducing waiting times for students.

Student Focussed Award: Hannah Greer and Jen Davey (Work-Study Scheme, Careers and Employability Service), for the Work Study Scheme, providing employability skills training, one to one mentoring and employment opportunities for students.

Partnership Award: Careers and Employability Service Team, for organising the Employability Festival at the Canterbury and Medway campuses, enhancing the employability of Kent students via links with graduate employers and developing students’ employability skills.

Spirit of Student Services Award: Cathy Myers, Specific Learning Difficulties Adviser, for her dedication to supporting staff and students during the period of industrial action and adverse weather conditions.

Team Excellence Award: Medway Master’s Office Team, for organising fundraising for the Molly McLaren Foundation.

You can read more about this year’s winners on the CARE Awards website.

Summer school in quantitative methods led by SSPSSR

Forty six students attended a two-week summer school in quantitative methods at the University from 18-30 June.

The two weeks form part of the University’s Q-Step centre’s programme, where students take a summer school so they can continue onto our degrees with minor in Quantitative Research. The programme forms part of a country wide initiative to address the shortage of quantitative skills amongst social science undergraduates in the UK. And this year our University of Kent students were joined by three external students from the UK, Hong Kong and the Nuffield foundation’s placement programme.

During the two weeks, students were given an introduction to quantitative methods, as well as having an opportunity to get to know both lecturers and teaching staff at the Q-Step centre. The two weeks consisted of teaching and social events – the latter of course coloured by the world championships. In addition to traditional seminars and lectures, the students were very lucky to attend two engaging guest seminars given by Dr Renee Luthra from the University of Essex and Rima Saini from City University reporting on their studies which relate to themes within the programme: ethnicity, race and discrimination.

Students showed great enthusiasm by interrogating and questioning these topics both in the expert seminars and in their own projects. The last day of summer school was our conference presentation day where student presentations were of a very high level- a perfect wrap up of a both socially and intellectually stimulating experience.

Thank you to all the students and to our excellent assistant lecturers Josh Townsley, Eva Sigurdardottir and Gianna Eick and Victoria Schoen for making it a great experience.

 

Athena SWAN Charters Award Ceremony 2018

The University attended the Advance HE’s Charters Awards Ceremony on 17 July at the new Swansea University’s Bay Campus in Swansea, Wales, together with 120 colleagues across the Higher Education sector in the UK.

 With these awards, Advance HE’s Athena SWAN Charter and Race Equality Charter recognises and celebrates the commitment and hard work that’s being done at the Institutions and Departments in advancing good practices in these fields.

Kent was successful in renewing its Institutional Athena SWAN Bronze award.The redacted version of the submission can be accessed here.

In addition to the Institutional Award, three of our Schools got their departmental awards; the School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Actuarial Science collected their Athena SWAN Silver award. SMSAS is the first department at the University of Kent to hold a Silver award. The School of History collected their Athena SWAN Bronze award. The School of History is the first department in the Faculty of Humanities at Kent to hold an Athena SWAN award.

The Athena SWAN Team also collected the Medway School of Pharmacy’s Athena SWAN Bronze. The Athena SWAN Team and the University of Kent know from experience that these awards are not a given and that getting an award is just the beginning. However, we would like to take this moment to celebrate the success, but also acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to do in advancing Gender Equality and in creating a fair work environment for all.

 

 

 

 

Pay Gaps and Thigh Gaps: SMFA graduating Fine Art students exhibit in London

Between 6th – 10th July, Pay Gaps and Thigh Gaps, an exhibition by a group of graduating SMFA Fine Art students was on at Old Truman’s Brewery in Brick Lane, London, as part of Free Range – A season of Graduate Art & Design Exhibitions.

Established in 2001 to showcase the work of emerging creatives, thousands of students have exhibited at the shows, taking over Old Truman Brewery spaces each summer and connecting with a London audience. It aims to celebrate talent and provide a platform for UK artists beyond education. The show was extremely successful, with an amazing turn out.

SMFA Students featured were:

BA (Hon) Fine Art

Amanda Nsubuga, Alexandra Aldham, Ayesha Chouglay, Angel Obi and Rachael Willis

MA Fine Art

Deborah Abbott

About Pay Gaps and Thigh Gaps:

There seems to be a growing precedent that in order to be recognised as a female artist you must limit your practice to being ‘feminist’. But why can’t a woman speak beyond her gender to gain recognition? We are a group of proud feminists who would like to share varying concerns beyond our genitalia (and possibly surrounding our genitalia- we would like the option). From, childhood imagination, to personal illness, we come together with uniquely different practices, to support each other as artists… who happen to be female.

More at http://www.free-range.org.uk/cgi-bin/exhibition.pl?yearID=27&exhibitionID=1443  and Instagram at pay_gapsandthigh_gaps

 

 

 

 

Kent Gives Back at bOing festival August- We need you!

Kent Gives Back, in partnership with Kent Union, is a great opportunity to enhance skills and networks whilst working together for a local community cause that matters to you.

On Saturday 25 August we are asking a group of Kent students and alumni to come and support us and volunteer at the bOing! Festival from 09:00 -17:00. But, we still appreciate it if you can only come along to volunteer for a couple of hours.

The festival takes place on the beautiful University of Kent campus in Canterbury. It will be an amazing day showcasing the very best in theatre, dance, music, films and fun for all the family, packed with magical performances and experiences.

There are many volunteering opportunities with bOing! that you can get involved in, such as being a production volunteer or a technical volunteer. You will gain extraordinary insight into the running of a venue/event. We are committed to helping you develop your skills and your confidence concerning the task of your choice. You will have the opportunity to meet others with a shared passion and also watch quality performances and screenings.

Last year’s volunteer, alumna, and current PhD student, Kasia Senyszyn (Keynes 2004), said of the experience: “…it’s so much fun, it’s a valued contribution to the fantastic programme, and seeing young and old being inspired for life right here in our city was incredible. Plus I met wonderful people and watched amazing work – for free!”

Join us at this event in August, to network, donate your time and share stories with Kent students and fellow alumni. Also, join our Facebook event page to stay up to date or email alumni@kent.ac.uk – click here to register!

 

 

 

 

Nostalgia podcast with Graeme Forbes

Nostalgia podcast with Graeme Forbes

Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has just released a new episode of his podcast series on ‘Nostalgia’.

In the latest instalment, Chris interviews Dr Graeme Forbes, Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, and talks about which other professions he considered entering before becoming a professional philosopher.

Before coming to Kent Graeme worked at a small liberal arts college in Kansas which leads him to make a number of insightful comments about the differences between the US and UK university systems. Graeme has also worked for Iceland supermarket, been a delegate for the National Union of Studies, and also has experience of stand-up comedy as well as being a life member of Keele Drama Society. Graeme also discusses his Scottish ancestry and he lets us into the secrets of the ‘wall of suspicious family rivalry’. Graeme discusses the way in which a family member used to speak to him in the form of parables. This is then followed by a wider conversation about the extent to which the lack of religion was an influence on Graeme’s life and how drama was an influence on his philosophical career.

Finally, Graeme reveals why he feels the need to be an imperialist when it comes to philosophy and we learn whether, as a philosopher of time, Graeme is a backward-looking or a forward-looking type of person.

 

The podcast is available here.

HAY Job Description training

Learning and Organisational Development have arranged HAY Job Description training for members of staff who are involved in writing job descriptions.

Sessions are running on the 25th and 31st July.

If you would like to book a place, further details can be found on our activities calendar.

Please email us at Idev@kent.ac.uk if you would like any further information.

 

Learning and Organisational Development activities- July and August

Learning and Organisational Development have a number of activities taking place in July and August which are now open for bookings on our webpage.

Leading and Managing Through Change is a pilot workshop open for any managers interested in understanding more about change, the effects it has on staff and who are looking for a better understanding of effectively leading, managing and embedding change within the organisation.

We are currently improving our RPD (appraisal) process and we are running a number of workshops to update you on the changes being made. We have briefing dates available for both staff being appraised and separate sessions for managers/those who are involved in appraising people so, if you want to learn more about these changes, please sign up to one of the briefings.

Unconscious bias has been a repeated request by areas of the University recently and we are pleased to be able to offer some workshops through the summer months. Open to any members of staff, these sessions will provide a general awareness of unconscious bias in the workplace,  the impacts it may have on our behaviour and decision making and will help increase awareness of strategies to identify and manage our biases. Provided by Advance HE these sessions are likely to be popular, so please book your space soon.

All these activities can be booked via our calendar which can be accessed here.

Kent Hospitality Housekeeping success at the annual BACHE Awards

Many congratulations are due to the Kent Hospitality Housekeeping department who won the ‘Cleaning Supervisor of the Year 2018’ Award at the British Association of Cleaning in Higher Education (BACHE) Awards in May.

By recognising the importance of professional cleaning activities in higher education institutions, BACHE aims to standardise training for cleaning staff, improve cleaning standards, and professionalise the delivery of cleaning and associated services on campus. This year the BACHE awards were held during the annual conference at Aston University.

With only three nomination categories, the team were delighted that Amanda Intrieri, Housekeeping Supervisor in Park Wood won the ‘Cleaning Supervisor of the Year 2018’ award, recognising her efforts and professionalism in performing her role. Kent were also given honourable mentions in the two other categories; the ‘Best Practice Award 2018’, distinguishing teams who continually develop their procedures to enhance the delivery of cleaning services on campus, and the ‘Cleaning Operative of the Year 2018’ award for Hayley Dyer, who works in Eliot College.

Gary Sayles, Executive Housekeeping Manager at Kent Hospitality said: ‘We are thrilled at our success at the BACHE Awards. To be recognised by this national association for our team’s consistent hard work is fantastic, with special congratulations to Amanda Intrieri who won the award. We are proud to deliver a consistently high standard of service here at the University, and to be acknowledged in all three categories is particularly rewarding.’