I am writing to give you an update to changes in Student Services that have been designed to ensure the continued success of the college system at the University of Kent and to support the delivery of an outstanding student experience. This has involved a review and restructure of the colleges including a clear separation of responsibility for college life and student conduct and complaints.

Continuing the excellent work of College Masters, assistants and colleagues since the University began, the new college structure ensures the University is aligned with the very latest regulatory requirements and sector best practice particularly in the separation of responsibility for student wellbeing from student conduct and complaints. The new structure helps facilitate a consistent approach to both of those areas for all our students.

You can see the new structure on the Organising for Success staff webpages.

In essence, the College Master function is now undertaken by the Head of Colleges and Community Life supported by a team of College Life Officers and a Community Life Officer. They will provide strategic leadership and management on all aspects of enhancement and innovation in the area of college and community life, ensuring that student life and the University’s engagement with the community is sector-leading, inclusive, evidence-based and contributes to successful student outcomes.

In addition, the Head of Student Conduct and Complaints will provide strategic leadership and management on all aspects of student conduct and complaints, supported by a team of specialist Student Conduct and Complaints Officers. The Office will be responsible for the management and investigation of all non-academic student discipline cases and complaints.

They will work closely with Campus Security and external bodies such as Kent Police, and address community concerns through local Resident Associations as well as liaising with and responding to regulatory bodies such as the Office for the Independent Adjudicator.

Following the appointment of Dr Lucy Foley as Director of Student Services, I am delighted to announce that we have appointed Jacqui Double as our new Head of Colleges and Community Life and Alison Mansell as Head of Student Conduct and Complaints.

To further strengthen the college system on the Canterbury campus, a new college for Park Wood students will be in operation from this September.

Providing additional support will be several teams of students in both Canterbury and Medway providing on- and off-campus support, helping to build community through a series of engagement activities and events. These include Residential Life Officers recruited from this year’s 2020/21 taught postgraduate cohort.

The new structure has also allowed us to invest further in mental health support, and out-of-hours provision.

We believe that these changes will enable the University to better meet the needs of students in the 21^st Century, build stronger communities within the colleges, and strengthen the wider student communities throughout Canterbury and Medway.

Further appointments to the team are in the process of being made and more information will be available soon including online Q and A sessions for staff led by Lucy, Jacqui and Alison.

Until the teams are fully in place, please do get in touch with any queries:

• Student welfare and college and community life
  Jacqui Double, headofcollegeandcommunitylife@kent.ac.uk
• Student conduct and complaints
  Alison Mansell, sccoffice@kent.ac.uk

Should you have any other queries please contact Dr Lucy Foley’s office, directorstudentservices@kent.ac.uk.

Professor Christina Hughes | Interim Director of Student Services

After 36 years delivering courses and programmes to the local community, the University’s services in Tonbridge will come to an end next week, bringing to a close a unique chapter in our history.

The University has been operating from its Avebury Avenue site in Tonbridge since 1983 and was the first UK building to be specially constructed as a regional satellite University Centre. From its humble origins in mobile classrooms, it developed to support hundreds of students through its dedicated programmes for adult learners, which ranged from accredited study options to short courses. Staff at the Centre were also able to form valuable links with the West Kent community, through events like the Tonbridge Arts Festival, the annual Pint of Science Festival and networking events for local businesses.

To encourage access to the Centre, short courses at Tonbridge were always competitively priced with costs supported by the University. This approach is sadly no longer viable in the current financial context, and with the Centre having been closed to the public for a number of months due to Covid-19, it will now not reopen for further courses from 31 August 2020. Students and local stakeholders have been informed of plans, including options for alternative study opportunities such as the U3A.

The University remains fully committed to delivering wider services for people in Kent and will continue to look into how people can best study and engage with us across the county as part of our ongoing regional engagement plans. Kent-franchised programmes in the creative arts will also continue unaffected at West Kent University Centre (part of West Kent College).

Vice-Chancellor Professor Karen Cox said: “I’d like to thank both staff and tutors at the Tonbridge Centre for all their work to deliver a fantastic range of courses over the years to their committed students, and wish everyone associated with the Centre all the best for the future.”

Last week Kent Hospitality’s Housekeeping Team visited local homeless charity Catching Lives to donate remaining food items that been left by students.

Following the early departure of students from their on-campus accommodation earlier this year, Kent Hospitality’s Housekeeping Team had been making weekly donations of food items left behind to Kent Union’s campus Food Bank. As the need for new items at the Union’s Food Bank decreased question remained over where remaining items could be donated.

‘We didn’t want to throw anything away that could still be used, so we didn’t hesitate to look locally and donate the food items to Catching Lives in Canterbury, who we had raised money for before. We knew it would be put to good use and they were delighted to have this bought to them’ said Becky Verlin, Housekeeping Manager.

In addition to sharing the news about the recipients of the food donations Becky also wished to express thanks, continuing ‘It’s meant a great deal to all the housekeeping team that we have been able to support others during this time and so we also just want to take a moment to thank all the staff and students. Without their co-operation, understanding and support we wouldn’t have been able to help so many people.’

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 24 – Friday 28 August) and are as follows:

Monday 24 August 2020 –  ‘How Care first can support you’
Time: 14.00-14.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Tuesday 25 August 2020 – ‘Preparing for Schools reopening’
Time: 11.00-11.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 26 August 2020 – ‘How to Promote the Care first Services effectively’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 27 August 2020 – ‘Post-lockdown Anxiety’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 28 August 2020 – ‘COVID-19: Where are we now?’
Time: 12.30-13.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

This blog is from Minna Janhonen | Athena SWAN Adviser, Learning & Organisational Development 

As we are in the midst of August, which is the Breastfeeding Awareness Month, it is a perfect time to draw attention to the pregnancy and maternity support facilities at Canterbury and Medway Campuses.

At Kent you are welcome to breastfeed your baby where ever YOU feel comfortable. There are dedicated rooms available for those needing to express or breastfeed at both the Canterbury and Medway campuses. These can also be used by expectant colleagues to take a rest and put their feet up!

How to use ‘Parenting Rooms’ 

The room at Canterbury is Rutherford E3-W8 and an access card can be obtained from Tyler Court reception. At Medway, the room is M0-04 in the Medway Building and can be unlocked by Estates and Campus Security. The rooms are used first come first served basis, calling the Tyler Court Reception (Canterbury) or Estates and Campus Security (Medway) is a good idea if you want to make sure no one isn’t using the room when you’re planning to. There is currently no booking method in place.

Both rooms contain fridges, chairs and beds.

Personal Experiences:

“When returning to work from Maternity Leave earlier this year I found using these facilities (at Canterbury Campus) very simple and easy. I was still breastfeeding so it was important to me to be able to express milk in quiet and calm environment during the working day.” 

The change in the government’s approach to grading of A-levels has had a considerable impact on university admissions across the country, as has the lifting of the cap on student numbers. The Vice-Chancellor will send an all-staff email later this week which will give an update on the University’s response to the situation. 

To help keep our community safe as we start returning to campus, a new Covid-19 Code of Conduct for Staff and Students has been agreed.

The Code of Conduct, which is aligned to government guidelines so subject to change, highlights the need to adapt to new ways of studying and working as the lockdown eases and we return to campus.

The Code outlines changes to our environment, adaptations to ensure our sites are Covid-secure, and what we all need to do to make sure we keep each other safe. There are detailed sections on:

• How Covid-19 is transmitted and what to do if you have symptoms on campus
• A duty of care to protect all members of community
• Travelling to and from campus
• Hygiene and cleanliness
• Social distancing measures
• Face coverings
• Vulnerable groups
• Mental ill health

All staff and students are expected to follow the Covid-19 Code of Conduct guidelines while on campus, as well as standards within our existing Charter/Code of Conduct.

• Student Charter
• Staff Code of Conduct

We will shortly be launching a campaign to support our staff, students and visitors with the new behaviours expected on campus. This will help us all to understand how we can keep our University community safe and support each other as we return to work.

For latest University updates and FAQs on Covid-19, see our staff webpages.

The Gulbenkian Cinema will reopen on 20 August.

The opening two weeks will see a mix of new films, including Clemency, Summerlandand Parasite, plus the return of Emma, Jojo Rabbit and 1917.

The popular family screenings are also back on Sunday afternoons, with Onward and Trolls World Tour the first offerings.

Initially the cinema will screen films Thursday to Sunday, to test audience demand, but the team aim to return to a full offering in September.

The team at Gulbenkian have been busy putting in place systems to support social distancing, as Operations Director David Haigh explains:

‘Gulbenkian is an independent arts centre with a strong sense of community. It has been so sad to see the building empty these last few months and we are all looking forward to being open again.

‘We have put a lot of thought into how we maintain our friendly, personal welcome whilst keeping staff and audiences safe. We have reduced our cinema capacity, put in place clear one way systems and improved our online booking process to ensure the public can book and visit with confidence – and you can expect the usual cheerful welcome from our front of house team.’

The first tickets went on sale from Friday 7 August, and full details can be found online at www.thegulbenkian.co.uk

Dr Laura Bailey, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, recently spoke to Kent Online for an article titled How the ‘Covid-19 pandemic created new words and phrases including covidiot, furlough and support bubbles’.

This new vocabulary has helped us to better understand and make sense of the change and disruption to our everyday lives. From social distancing to self-isolation the coronavirus pandemic has led to an explosion of new words and phrases.

Laura said: “Anything that people are going to talk about that either introduces new things or behaviours or concepts you need new terms for. We already had the word ‘quarantine’. You can still use it in the sense of bringing an animal in from another country – it has to be quarantined for four weeks. But we know when we are talking about quarantine now we are talking about the two weeks of staying inside your own house if you develop symptoms.”

Dr Bailey also commented on the suggestion language could be weaponised in times of emergency with war metaphors such as “on the frontline” coined by politicians.

As we enjoy the balmy days of a long, hot summer, now is the perfect time to get outdoors, roll out a blanket and enjoy a picnic or two!

While we all love the staple snacks of sandwiches and sausage rolls, these top 10 seasonal recipes are sure to make your picnic spread just that bit tastier…

Savoury delights

1. Italian pinwheels

As well as being quick and simple to make, these delicious appetisers are a fun addition to your picnic basket.

2. Healthier potato salad

Swap most of the mayonnaise for yoghurt and crème fraiche and add mustard and chives to enjoy this healthy take on a potato salad.

3. Tomato-Manchego Tartlets

These miniature finger-foods look stunning and make for the perfect picnic snack.

4. Chicken, ham & asparagus picnic pie

The combination of these three ingredients make this a great picnic show-stopper. It may take a while to create, but it’s well worth the effort!

Sweet treats

5. Lemon and blueberry bars

Gooey on the inside and crunchy on the out, these bars are so moreish you won’t be able to pick just one from the picnic basket!

6. Mini chocolate chip sandwich cookies

Not your average sandwich, these sweet and mouth-watering treats will be a hit with all your family and friends.

8. Apple hand pies

Everyone will love the convenience of helping themselves to these individual grab-and-go minis, instead of cutting up a whole pie. No cutlery needed here!

8. Vegan lemon-baked donuts

These fluffy and light donuts are not only delicious, but quick and simple to make, and perfect for enjoying outdoors.

And something to drink…

9. Watermelon cooler

Get in your five-a-day with this simple to make beverage. On a warm summer’s day, it will go down well with the whole family.

10. Dogwood Punch

This adults-only combo of strawberry lemonade and sparkling rosé is the perfect, refreshing drink for relaxing while the kids play in the sunshine.

Can you think of any Top 10 summer ideas? If so, please send them to stories@kent.ac.uk