Even though Covid-19 has had an impact on the launch of the Signature Research Themes project, work has been going on behind the scenes and the team are now very excited to invite you to the Selection Event on Tuesday 15 September.

The event will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube between  9.30 to 13.00 (links available soon) in collaboration with KMTV.

The event will include, opening remarks from the University’s Vice-Chancellor Karen Cox, as well the Themes Task Group. Each of the eight themes leads will then present their vision for Kent’s Signature Research Themes. For more information please take a look at Kent’s first Signature Research Themes.

Questions can be submitted throughout each of the presentations, and after the event a dedicated website will be set up with responses to the questions.

Ahead of the event you can find out more about the shortlisted themes, the people behind them, and how you can get involved.

The team look forward to seeing you there!

A walk-through coronavirus testing facility is now open at Rutherford Car Park in Canterbury, as part of the Government’s UK-wide drive to improve the accessibility of coronavirus testing for communities.

Anyone with coronavirus symptoms, however mild, can get a free swab test that takes less than a minute. Tests should be booked or ordered as soon as symptoms begin on the NHS website or by calling 119. All test most be booked in advance, with no drop-in tests available.

Those being tested will be required to follow public health measures, including social distancing, not travelling by taxi or public transport, practising good personal hygiene and wearing a face covering throughout (including when travelling to and from the testing centre). The centre is totally self-contained and externally managed, with no need for individuals being tested or test centre staff to access any University buildings. It is also monitored by 24/7 security.

Anyone attending an appointment at a walk-through testing will be provided with guidance on getting to and from the test site safely, which is easily accessible without a car. Testing is available for everyone, with additional support for vulnerable groups and people with disabilities.

The site opened for testing at 14.00 on Saturday 5 September. The opening hours during the mobilisation phase are as follows:

5 September 2020 – 14.00 – 17.00

6 September 2020 – 10.00 – 17.00

7 September 2020 – 08.00 – 20.00

And then 08. 00 – 20.00 thereafter

The site is part of the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history, including 72 drive-through sites, 53 walk-through sites, 236 mobile units, home testing and satellite kits and five laboratories.

Anyone testing positive for the virus in England will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace to help them track their contacts. This will help people to identify who they may have been in close contact with, protecting others from further transmission.

Close contacts of those testing positive will also hear from NHS Test and Trace, advising them to stay at home for 14 days to prevent them from unknowingly spreading the virus. They will be advised to also book at test if they develop symptoms.

See more information on visiting a local test site

We are hosting our next Undergraduate Virtual Open Event on 3 October 2020, from 10.00 – 14.00 UK.

Our last undergraduate event last July was a great success with 1,652 attendees on the day, as it’s a virtual event we’re able to keep the link live for longer and saw new attendees join the event each day. Virtual open days are a great opportunity to all potential students to engage with course presentations from our specialist academics and attend live Q&A sessions, as well as find out more about our facilities on campus.

It would be a great help if our colleagues could promote the virtual event across their platforms, either on their school websites and on social channels.  As well as forwarding on to friends or family members who may be interested in our undergraduate courses at Kent. Please see further information about the event and register on the Virtual Open Day website.

Here’s some positive feedback from the last event: 

Dr Debbie Reed, the University’s Head of Digital and Lifelong Learning, has received an award for her outstanding contribution to the dental nursing profession.

Debbie was presented with the BADN 2020 Outstanding Contribution to Dental Nursing Professional Practice Award at the BADN 80th Anniversary Virtual Afternoon Tea.

Presenting the award, BADN President Jacqui Elsden said: ‘Over the last twenty five years or more, Debbie has contributed to the advancement of Dental Nurses across many areas of dentistry and has not only inspired myself to achieve my potential but has inspired many others to do so and has recently acquired her doctorate in Education, one of only a handful of Dental Nurses to do so.’

Debbie commented: ‘As an academic and a Doctor of Education, I am reassured to know that my work and research is valued, and moreover has had a practical application, in terms of the transformational opportunities it has provided, and will continue to provide, to those employed in the dental sector… I am humbled to know that I have been an inspiration to others.’

Debbie, a former BADN Chairman, trained as a dental nurse at the Royal Navy School of Dental Training in 1987. She went on to hold varying clinical and non-clinical posts over the next 20 years, working with all three Armed Forces organisations, in the UK and overseas, until she left the Royal Navy in 2007 and joined the staff at the University of Kent.

Debbie is registered with the General Dental Council and holds a number of additional professional and vocational qualifications and awards in education, leadership and management.

Find out more about the award on the BADN webpages.

As our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support.

Their weekly webinars continue this week (Monday 7 September – Friday 11 September) are as follows:

Monday 7 September 2020 –  ‘‘How Care first can support you & an update on our services’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link.

Tuesday 8 September 2020 – ‘‘Making positive changes to your wellbeing post lockdown’ ’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 9 September 2020 –  ‘Coping with uncertainty during COVID-19’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 10 September 2020 – ‘World Suicide Prevention day: Understanding suicide’
Time: 12.00-13.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 11 September 2020 – ‘What is Counselling & What to expect when you call’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Dr Stella Bolaki, Reader in American Literature and Medical Humanities in the School of English, has edited a special issue of The Journal of Medical Humanities on ‘Artists’ Books and Medical Humanities’.

The Journal of Medical Humanities is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of medicine and medical education. It is particularly interested in three areas of investigation: medical humanities, cultural studies, and pedagogy.

This special issue developed from Stella’s research project Artists’ Books and Medical Humanities, brings together international contributors who are artists, scholars, educators, and archivists.

Collectively, the contributions demonstrate the importance of intimate, multi-sensory knowledge that this innovative art form offers in areas such as illness communication, pedagogy and public health. In addition to academic essays, the issue contains excerpts from five books that are part of Prescriptions: Artists’ Books, a recent acquisition of the University of Kent Special Collection & Archives. The books that were selected for inclusion in the special issue use different structures and formats.

They were photographed in such a way so as to give readers the possibility to experience the powerful effects of artists’ books, a medium which requires touching and handling. Finally, the edition features a response to the material by renowned book artist and visual theorist Johanna Drucker.

Stella’s open-access article, titled ‘Contemporary Artists’ Books and the Intimate Aesthetics of Illness’, examines artists’ books by three contemporary female artists: Penny Alexander, Martha A. Hall and Amanda Watson-Will. Interrogating narrative’s dominance in medical humanities research, it explores how artists’ books represent lived experiences of illness in a distinctively palpable way.

Drawing attention to the imaginative and aesthetic dimensions of such representations, the essay argues that artists’ books allow their makers an ‘intimate authority’ that extends beyond narrative legitimacy or a form of struggle against the medical gaze.

For more details, and to read some of the open access articles of this issue, please see the publisher’s website. 

Dr Olly Double, Reader in Drama, has just published a chapter in a new collection entitled Victorian Comedy and Laughter: Conviviality, Jokes and Dissent (Palgrave, 2020).

The book is an innovative collection of essays, and is the first to situate comedy and laughter as central rather than peripheral to nineteenth century life. It presents new readings of the works of Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, George Eliot, George Gissing, Barry Pain and Oscar Wilde, alongside discussions of much-loved Victorian comics like Little Tich, Jenny Hill, Bessie Bellwood and Thomas Lawrence. Tracing three consecutive and interlocking moods in the period, contributors to the collection engage with the crucial critical question of how laughter and comedy shaped Victorian subjectivity and aesthetic form.

Olly’s chapter is entitled ‘Deliberately Shaped for Fun by the High Gods’: Little Tich, Size and Respectability in the Music Hall’, and it explores the work of music hall comedian Harry Relph (1867–1926) – best known as Little Tich.

Little Tich is the subject of a mural at Kent (pictured), located outside the Aphra and Lumley Theatres.

To read more about the collection, please see the publisher’s page.

Good news – Progress Profiles have been relaunched and they are now even better!

Progress Profiles were launched by the Student Success Project as a pilot project in 2018.  They provided all undergraduate students, their Academic Advisers and Senior Tutors the opportunity to view SDS attendance and attainment data in a more graphical way.  Due to pilot’s success, the reports have been officially launched as a permanent resource in time for this academic year.

The Student Success Project listened to feedback from academic staff during the pilot and, based on that information, the new Progress Profiles are greatly improved.  The new reports are web based, rather than a pdf download, they are updated daily rather than twice termly, they have improved graphics and the ability to directly compare previous year’s information alongside current statistics.

The new Progress Profiles aim to facilitate the Academic Adviser consultation process by providing Academic Advisers and Senior Tutors with student data in a format which is quick and easy to digest.

A link to your students’ Progress Profile can be found on the Staff Guide, or via the link on the top banner of the Student Guide or directly using the following Progress Profiles link.

For further information about Progress Profiles, please visit the Student Success Project web page or contact studentsuccessproject@kent.ac.uk

Our Covid-19 Programme Board, now chaired by Sinead Critchley, Director of Governance and Assurance at the University, continues to plan for a safe return to campus for us all.

Among latest updates from the Board’s weekly meetings are:

Health and Safety

Face coverings should be worn in transit areas of buildings, entrances, exits, foyers etc. Signage is being placed in buildings to reflect this. For ease, signage will say ‘Face coverings must be worn in this building’. Please note this does not apply in staff offices/break rooms as these are all organised at 2m social distancing therefore a face covering is not required.

From 1 September the majority of Canterbury and Medway campus buildings have reverted to their previous normal opening hours, with free-flow and/or card access exactly as before the Covid-19 closure. You can find a list of exceptions on SharePoint. Those staff working on campus are asked to keep their offices locked and alert Campus Security of any unusual or suspicious behaviour. All access control rights will be reinstated to staff and students from 1 September, but please note that there is no change to the policies regarding staff return.

New signage is being placed on single occupancy offices to discourage one to one meetings with students being held in these spaces. Building managers will be responsible for displaying this signage. In addition, capacity limits on toilets are to be removed to prevent pinch points once students return. New signage will be displayed asking users to be aware the toilets may be busy and to potentially find alternative facilities.

New and returning students

Information for students is contained on the following sites and downloadable campaign materials are now available on our Welcome-2020 webpages.

• Safe Study Social – overview of the return to campus
• Getting Started – essential registration and information for new students
• Hello Kent App and Hello Kent site – welcome campaign for new students
• Welcome Back – welcome campaign for returning students

Corporate Communications are working on a campaign to encourage positive behaviours among staff, students and visitors on campus. Work is also taking place with Canterbury City Council, residents’ associations and other local partners to support students’ return to the community.

Each year we run a campaign to welcome our new and returning students to campus.

We are welcoming our new students with the Hello Kent campaign, building on the campaign from last year. We have also introduced a new Welcome back website for returning students. Another exciting addition is our new Hello Kent mobile app for new and returning students.

Welcome to new students (Hello Kent)

The Hello Kent website includes links to key enrolment information on the Getting Started webpages, maps, helpful student blogs/vlogs and a shared events calendar with Canterbury and Medway events organised by the University and Union.

Welcome to returning students (Welcome back)

We have created a specific Welcome back website which aims to provide key information such as re-registration and timetable release dates, helpful blogs, events and a reminder of all the support available.

Hello Kent app

Our new Hello Kent app has launched. The app is a great way for students to easily access our services, events and find out key information.

How to promote

Please see our dedicated webpage about the welcome campaigns and app for more details about how you can help us promote, including resources you can download such as branded plasma screens and images for social media.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, contact communications@kent.ac.uk.