Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor of Performance in the Department of Drama and Theatre, has been commended by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for her outstanding contribution to the work of the council over the past year.

Nicola was nominated by AHRC staff in recognition for services to the for the AHRC Peer Review College (PRC) in 2019. The AHRC’s Peer Review College has around 1,150 members from higher education institutions and independent research organisations in the United Kingdom and overseas, and from outside academia. Nicola is one of a small number of individuals who are members of multiple colleges and is appointed to four of the PRC groups: Academic, International, Knowledge Transfer and Strategic Review.

The PRC is central to ensuring the robustness of the decision-making mechanisms of the AHRC. It is vital that it operates effectively and efficiently and that it holds the confidence of the academic community. College members play a critical role, not only in providing high quality reviews, but in informing and influencing the current work of the AHRC and its future direction.

Our congratulations to Nicola for this excellent achievement, undertaken alongside her many other duties with the university.

In response to Covid-19 and our new working arrangements, adjustments have been made to policies covering  annual leave and additional sick pay. FAQs on these changes are now available on our staff coronavirus webpages.

Annual leave

Our Executive Group and JSNCC have agreed some principles for interim annual leave arrangements during 2020.  These are aimed at ensuring staff continue to take annual leave wherever possible to promote wellbeing and to avoid staff losing untaken leave at the end of the year:

• Staff are encouraged to still take annual leave during the current period of disruption, even if they are at home.
• Staff wishing to cancel booked leave should immediately re-book it on confirmation that their request has been authorised.
• KVSS applications, where approved, will be conditional on all outstanding leave (pro-rata) being taken prior to the last day of service.
• For those staff with an additional work burden due to Covid-19 or maintaining essential operations on campus, we will increase the carry forward above 5 days, in line with the amended Working Time Directive.
• There will be no change to the current policy of not ‘buying out’ untaken leave at the end of the year, and that any untaken leave, over and above what can be carried forward will be lost. 

Additional sick pay

The NHS has advised hospitals to suspend all non-emergency elective procedures for an undetermined period, possibly for a number of months, because of the surge in coronavirus patients.

To ensure staff already in receipt of long-term sick pay are not disadvantaged by the NHS delay, the University plans to maintain the current level of sick pay (either full pay or half-pay) for an initial period of up to three months, pending receipt of a (new) treatment date.  These arrangements will be reviewed after three months if the NHS continues to defer treatments or if delays are experienced due to a high backlog of deferred treatments.

If you have any questions on these new arrangements, email the HR Operations Team hropsteam@kent.ac.uk.

Other new FAQs

Other new FAQs on our staff coronavirus webpages include the University’s approach to the Government’s Staff Retention Scheme.

Kent has a wide range of subjects, most of which are available full or part-time and some by distance and blended learning. Programmes, many with professional accreditation, are informed by the latest research from world-leading academics so you can develop career-focused skills and knowledge relevant to today’s issues.

What to expect from the event: 

• Learn about the multimillion-pound postgraduate scholarship fund
• Hear from specialist academics
• Attend live Q&A sessions with staff and current students
• Discover Kent’s inspirational locations: Canterbury, Medway, Paris and Brussels
• Take a look at Kent’s wonderful campuses and postgraduate centres
• Hear a welcome from Prof Paul Allain, Dean of the Graduate School

To find out more please visit the courses website.

Gerard McGill, a counsellor at the University has collaborated with Carers Trust East Midlands to create a video on how to cope with anxiety during a crisis.

The video covers how to manage your anxiety, how to spot triggers and small things that you can change that will make your life less stressful.

The short video shares tips on how to create a daily routine, implement exercise, having a healthy diet and how to communicate effectively with family and friends.

Dr Wissia Fiorucci, Director of Education and Languages Co-ordinator in the Department of Modern Languages, has appeared on BBC Radio Kent as part of a discussion on whether, during the lockdown, it is easy to learn a new language online.

In the programme, Wissia discusses what it could be about British people in particular that makes it hard to learn a new language.

‘There is unfortunately a resistance towards learning different languages,” Wissia says, “Not from individuals, but obviously this is a country where the native language is spoken throughout the world. Therefore, motivation is somewhat lost.’

then goes on to discuss the benefits of broadening your horizon and careers prospects by picking up a language, and also comments on whether learning a language something you should start when you’re younger or if it can be picked up just as easily at any age.

‘At Kent, we have different pathways for students who have studied the language before and students want to start from scratch.” Wissia explains, “students who start as beginners often tend to actually become better because they have the passion and commitment that you can’t really have when you’re a child. I think that any age is fine to start learning a language as long as you’re motivated.’

You can listen to the full interview on the BBC website (timecode 1:13:00)

With all of us suddenly shifting to online teaching, this is the perfect time to hear from innovators who were engaging their students online before the COVID-19 crisis. This symposium is being convened by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education.  As the symposium will be conducted virtually, participants will also be able to experience different methods of online teaching first hand from a learner perspective.

The event kicks off with a live session on virtual lecturing at 13.00 on 7 May. That session will also be recorded for access for those who cannot participate in the live event.

To ensure maximum flexibility for academics juggling multiple commitments during this difficult time, the other symposium papers will be available online either as short papers or short videos, with facilitated discussion boards from 7 May to 16 May.

Log on anytime during that period to see how colleagues are making the most of Moodle and engaging students in discussions online.  Use the discussion boards associated with each session to ask questions or share your own experiences. Feel free to connect with paper presenters individually for more in-depth discussion.

You can self-enrol on Moodle at  where you will also find links to the live events on 7 May.

If you have any questions or difficulties enrolling, please contact heprogsadmin@kent.ac.uk.

Dragan Todorovic, author and Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of English, was interviewed by Steve Ladner on BBC Radio Kent’s Mid Morning programme earlier this month.

In the interview, Dragan discusses self-isolation due to COVID-19, creative writing and increased discipline and time to write. Dragan draws comparisons with works written during historical times of isolation, and the importance of these documents for future generations:

‘Some of the hugely important books in the history of creative writing have been written in times of isolation of some sort, from Bocaccio’s Decameron to Apollinaire’s Calligrammes and many other books’, Dragan explains. ‘It’s not only about the stories, but it’s also a vital document of how people lived at the time. Everything written at this moment is a document of the time, and we owe it to future generations to write it and leave it for them’.

Dragan also provides advice as to where new writers can start:

‘You have to write about yourself. There is no good creative writing unless you know how to write about the self. Writing a memoir is a fantastic beginning for most people, but it’s also very rewarding’.

The full interview can be heard on the Soundcloud website, with the segment featuring Dragan  starting at 3:11:20.

As you will be aware, the Government has launched a number of support packages in recent weeks to support organisations during the current coronavirus crisis including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This Scheme allows employers to receive grants to cover the wages of their workforce who will remain on payroll but who are not temporarily able to work during the coronavirus outbreak, which is referred to as ‘furloughing’.

The University is not immune from the significant pressures resulting from this unprecedented situation and we are responding quickly to the changes in line with Government guidance.

As a University and your employer we are intent on protecting employment for all our staff during what we acknowledge is a very unsettling time for everyone. As such we are proposing to make use of the Government Scheme and to furlough those staff for whom there is no continuing work during this period.

We would like to reassure all staff that those invited to be furloughed will continue to receive 100% of their current pay. The Government have agreed to fund 80% of pay and the University is committed to topping up so that furloughed staff receive their normal expected pay and both the staff and the University will continue to pay normal pension contributions. Other terms and conditions of employment and continuity of service will not be affected during this period.

This means that some staff will be designated (with their agreement) as a “furloughed worker” in the coming weeks, which means they will not be provided with work. There are strict criteria for the furloughing of staff and directors will be working with HR over the next few days to consider those categories of staff where furloughing for a period may be appropriate. It is expected that those individuals identified for furloughing will contacted in week commencing 20 April.

We will continue to update you on the situation and more detailed information can be found in the FAQs. In addition you may wish to refer to the Government guidance for more details of the Scheme:

The Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is initially set to run until the end of May 2020, but the Government has said that the Scheme will be extended if necessary. We are keeping the situation under review and will keep you updated as the coronavirus crisis unfolds in the coming weeks.

We appreciate that this is a difficult time for everyone as we continue to work together in very difficult circumstances. We are grateful for your continued commitment to the University and support for each other and wish you and your families well during this time.

Special Collections & Archives is looking to collect your experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of us are experiencing an exceptional time in our lives, where the COVID-19 coronavirus has had an impact on how we live, how we work, and how we interact with each other. Archives have an important role in recording these extraordinary times. In Special Collections & Archives we preserve the history of the University of Kent and the history of the regions and communities of which the University is a part, and we would like to create an archive collection that records the experiences of people in Kent in relation to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

We would like to collect records of your experiences of – and responses to – the pandemic. Your record of your experience can be anything – including diaries or journals, artistic responses, poetry, short videos, and photographs. This can be in digital or physical form and we invite responses from all members of the community – whether you are juggling working at home with caring responsibilities, trying to carry on studying, volunteering in your community to shop or chat to others, or working on the front line as a keyworker.

Your contribution to the archive will be kept by Special Collections & Archives as a donated item and we will catalogue and preserve it alongside our other archive collections. It will also be made accessible to others in our reading room, contributing to research and engaging people with this important part of history.

If you would like to contribute something, then please start to make your record in whichever form you choose. We’ll provide more information about how to send your responses in at a later date. If you have any questions about this project, then please contact specialcollections@kent.ac.uk

For information about Templeman Library resources during this period please click here. If you’d like to know about how Special Collections & Archives can support your research digitally please click here.