Tag Archives: Canterbury

Launch of a new sustainable food strategy

The University of Kent recognises its responsibility to carry out its procurement activities in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, and the considerable influence we have in using our buying power to encourage healthy and sustainable food production and consumption. With this in mind, the University launches its first sustainable food strategy on 1 October 2018.

The strategy is a road map for increasing the sustainability of our food offering from field to fork and beyond, and has been co-written by Kent Hospitality, Kent Sport, The Gulbenkian and the Estates Department, along with the Kent Union Environment Officer and student and staff reps. The strategy supports the University’s aim to embed the Sustainable Development Goals into our operations.

Highlights include:

Reducing overall meat consumption across our campuses and improving the welfare standard of the meat we serve
Reducing the miles our fruit and veg travels and increasing the seasonality of our menus
Incorporating food grown on campus into our menus
Carrying out a full review of the amount of single-use disposables we get through
Pursuing options for food composting

Read the full strategy and find out more about sustainable food at the Sustainability web pages or email sustainability@kent.ac.uk.

Vice-Chancellor’s Open Forums – 10 and 18 October

The Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox, will be hosting two staff open forums focusing on the Strategy Refresh.

The Canterbury event will take place on Wednesday 10 October, in Woolf Lecture Theatre, from 12.00-13.00.

The Medway event will take place on Thursday 18 October, in Rochester Board Room, from 14.00-15.00.

The latest strategy documents can be found on the Office of the Vice-Chancellor pages.

Free Study Plus workshops to boost your CV

Registration is open now on our FREE Study Plus workshops. There is a wide variety of courses which allow you to explore your creative side as well as learning new skills to help you during your studies and when you graduate. Courses include:

KE192: #DigitalReboot Business Start-Up Workshops
KE125-KE127: Advanced Spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel
KE170: The Ever-Changing Face of Sherlock Holmes
KE158/KE159: Acting for Beginners/Improvers
KE146: Harry Potter and the Literary Phenomenon
KE148: U. N. I. (You and I) Protect
KE178/KE179: Cambridge/IELTS Exam Preparation Taster
KE095: Communicate with Confidence
KE172: A Journey through 100 Years of Art and History (1860s-1970s)
KE155: An Introduction to Sustainability

And many, many more…

Book your place via the Workshops page in SDS.

Study Plus is also a proud sponsor of the Employability Points scheme that rewards students for active engagement in co-curricular activities.

Study Plus offers you the chance to earn up to 60 Employability Points per course (number of points varies depending on the number of hours attended)! The points can then be exchanged for the chance to apply for rewards including paid internships, work experience opportunities, training and vouchers offered by local and national employers.

U.N.I (You and I) Protect workshops

Places are now available on U.N.I (You and I) Protect workshops running in October 2018.

All of us can take action to protect each other and the wider University community to help promote a culture of dignity and respect at Kent. This programme will help you recognise and challenge problematic and harmful behaviour, such as abuse or sexual harassment.

On completion of the course participants will understand what a ‘bystander’ is and be empowered to be able to intervene in situations safely and with confidence.

There will be two sets of workshops running in October 2018. You can attend on either Monday or Friday mornings from10.00 to 11.30 during weeks 3, 4 and 5. All students who complete the course will receive 15 Employability Points.

If you want to take part or simply want to find out more please visit the Study Plus website. The module code is KE148. Places are limited so please sign up as soon as you can.

Further information about the course can also be found on the Student Services website.

Crowdfunding@Kent – Build the crowd!

One of the stand out events in Freshers Week this year was the much anticipated launch of the University’s new crowdfunding platform , CrowdFunding@Kent

A joint project between Kent Union and The Development Office, Crowdfunding@Kent provides a vehicle for small student projects to be funded throughout the year. The best projects could even receive match-funding up to £1000.

Students, groups and societies are invited to apply online. The most exciting and best supported projects will be first in the queue to try their hand at crowdfunding.

A test project run through the platform earlier this year called The Green Room – From Tree to Building successfully raised more than £6,000 to construct a teaching and social space using timbers cut from campus woodlands.

For further information email crowdfunding@kent.ac.uk or download an application form.

Public consultation on Campus Masterplan

A public consultation on our Campus Masterplan takes place in October. We’ll share our vision for the future evolution of the campus to best meet the needs of the University and of the wider city and region.

The Framework Masterplan proposals detail the framework within which we will make decisions on the future development of our estate in the short-term (2018 to 2021) and medium-term (2021 to 2031), covering the period defined within Canterbury City Council’s District Local Plan.

This latest version of the Masterplan takes into account the feedback that staff, students, local amenity groups and residents provided during the initial stages of consultation in 2016 and 2017.

We learned a lot from that feedback and we now invite you to share your views on the Framework Masterplan by attending our consultation events. They take place as follows:

Saturday 6 October 2018, 10.00-16.00 at Westgate Hall, Canterbury
Thursday 11 October 2018, 14.00-20.00 at Tyler Hill Memorial Hall
Friday 12 October 2018, 14.00-20.00 at Blean Village Hall
Thursday 18 October 2018, 10.00-16.00 Darwin Conference Suite, Canterbury campus

Our response to the views you express during this stage of the consultation will be published in a Consultation Statement later this year. This will feed into the final stages of development of the Framework Masterplan document, which will be presented to Canterbury City Council at the end of the year.

More information about the Masterplan and copies of previous consultation statements are available on our Masterplan web pages.

Studio 3 gallery hosts exhibition on revolution

The School of Arts is hosting a new exhibition, Beyond the Barricade, in the Studio 3 Gallery in the Jarman Building from 28 September 2018.

Based on the spirit of the French Revolution, the exhibition brings artists from various nations together to look at different dimensions of revolutions. By documenting past upheavals and recent events, the exhibition aims to present artistic creation as a form of social and political action.

Beyond the Barricade has been supported by the nationally funded project, the Age of Revolution, in partnership with Waterloo 200. The exhibition will run until 30 November 2018.

The Studio 3 Gallery is the School’s dedicated exhibition space which plays host to major exhibitions and annual shows that are open to the public.

Mathilde Poizat-Amar delivers Think Kent lecture on travel writing

Dr Mathilde Poizat-Amar, Lecturer in French in the Department of Modern Languages, has given an online lecture entitled ‘Why is Travel Literature so Interesting?’ for the University’s Think Kent series, which is now available on YouTube.

In a globalised and increasingly connected world where we can collect information about unknown places without having to open a book, travel literature could easily pass for an endangered species in the literary landscape. Yet, despite the concurrence of Internet and the ever-growing importance of major literary genres (such as the novel or the autobiography), travel literature stands the test of time – both in terms of popularity and critical importance.

Mathilde’s talk takes the case of modern and contemporary French Travel Literature to present a few reasons why travel literature is so resilient to change, and why studying travel literature matters more than ever. You can watch the full talk on YouTube.

The Think Kent lectures are a series of TED talk-style lectures produced with the intention of raising awareness of the research and teaching expertise of Kent academics and the international impact of their work.

Players offer staff a dramatic break

The University of Kent Players are holding a read-through and open auditions for their next production, a radio play of Scarlet Pimpernel.

The play will be performed to a live audience by the University of Kent Players at Mungo’s, Eliot College, Canterbury campus, on Friday 30 November and Saturday 1 December 2018.

The University of Kent Players will be holding a friendly script read-through and get together at 17.30 on Tuesday 25 September in Cornwallis South Room S33. This will be an opportunity for people to have fun, mingle and sit together reading through the script aloud. Please note that no casting decisions will be made from the read through.

Auditions will be held at 12:00 on Tuesday 2 October (Rutherford Cloisters room 15) (you don’t have to attend all two hours) and 17.30 on Thursday 4 October (in Templeman Library, Room D G 01).

The friendly group welcomes anyone regardless of experience and also welcome anyone who would like to assist backstage or with foley (sound effects). Please feel free to just turn up to auditions or contact the group (players@kent.ac.uk)

University of Kent Players:

The University of Kent Players are an amateur theatre group, consisting of staff from the University of Kent, Canterbury, raising money for charity on each production. They perform two productions per year at the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury the most recent, a successful adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Kent Sport Couch to 5K challenge

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.