In recognition of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2020, members of staff have been sharing who their most inspirational woman is and what makes them so special:

Jacinta Ardern (PM of New Zealand) – ‘Compassionate leadership in a male dominated world. The youngest female head of government, and only the second elected head of government to have a baby and take maternity leave while in office.’ (Laura Pheils, L&OD Advisor)

Dame Julie Andrews – ‘Her incredible talent and how she coped with having to use this to support her family as a young child; not letting her childhood put her off her dreams. I admire her grace, charity work, her love of family, her strength after losing her voice and as the only person I’ve ever seen to get a standing ovation just walking into a room. ‘ (Helen Oliver, L&OD Coordinator)

Barbara Castle – ‘for introducing the Equal Pay Act.’  (Maddy Withers, Reward Assistant)

Aphra Behn – ‘A playwright, poet and spy was a remarkable and talented woman who made her voice heard and took risks for the things she believed in. Virginia Woolf wrote of her: “All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn… for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.”‘ (Alison Ross Green, Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development)

‘Mary Lacy’ – ‘She was determined to succeed and did so in spades. Born and bred in Ash, Kent she ran away to sea and also became an accomplished shipwright: she was arguably the first women ever to train as shipwright (albeit disguised as a man) and was also the first woman (this time not in disguise) to gain a pension from the Admiralty. She published her fascinating, candid memoirs – The Female Shipwright – in 1773.’  (Simon Kirchin, Director of the Division of Arts, Culture and Design)

Isabel Myers Briggs – ‘No-one has to be good at everything, By developing individual strengths, guarding against known weaknesses and appreciating the strengths of others, life will be more amusing, more interesting and more of a daily adventure than it could possibly be if everyone were alike.’ (Anne-Marie Baker,  Project Manager Athena SWAN)

Mother Teresa – ‘Despite all her encounters with adversity and distress, she maintained an iconic symbol of hope, peace and compassion.’ (Jena Dady, L&OD Advisor)

Emmy Noether – ‘As a woman in a patriarchal scientific community and a Jew in a brutally anti-Semitic society, she was unquestionably an outsider. Yet she discovered mathematics of great power and reach: her theorems on symmetries underpin our understanding of physics, and her exceptionally clear teaching has formed the heart of algebra for the last century.’ (Peter Hydon, Professor of Mathematics and Director of Division)

The abolitionist Sojourner Truth – ‘Born into slavery and at one point sold with a flock of sheep. She fought for the right to have all that comes with the freedom of personhood and equality.’ (Christina Hughes,  Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience)

The Development Office is looking for support for Congregations in July.

Graduations are an important University occasion supporting students in a crucial part of their journey at Kent. Ceremony dates and times are available here.

Various roles are available during graduations. Full training will be available for your designated role, with a member of staff on hand to support you at all times. Staff working two or more consecutive ceremonies will be provided with lunch/hot dinner in between their two shifts as well as allocated breaks throughout the day.

Please complete the form here with your availability. Once you have committed to these hours, please block them out in your calendar as we may not contact you with your role until nearer the time.

Where possible, we will try to allocate you your preferred role. Each role has varying start and finish times so we advise that you are available for two hours before and after the ceremony time you select.

Some of the graduation shifts may involve working outside of your contracted working hours.  Please get permission from your line manager prior to agreeing to work outside of your contracted hours, as they make the decision whether to permit you time off in lieu.

Mental Health is a serious subject. Nearly two-thirds of people say that they have experienced mental ill-health and evidence suggests that poor mental health is responsible for almost 13% of all sickness absence days in the UK.

One of the biggest challenges with poor mental health is removing the stigma that surrounds it. Many don’t hesitate to seek help for physical pain or problem, yet so many of us ignore emotional and mental health issues – or we feel too embarrassed, confused or scared to talk about them.

To ensure continued support for all of our staff, L&OD have arranged the following Mental Health Awareness sessions and Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Wellbeing training sessions.

Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Wellbeing

27 April 10.30 – 12.30 Canterbury Campus
3 June 10.30 – 12.30 Medway Campus

Mental Health training for Line Managers

24 March 9.30 – 12:30 and 13.30 – 16.30 (2 sessions)
16 June 9.30 – 12.30 and 13.30 – 16.30 (2 sessions)

During Belong and Grow Week

Mental Health training for Line Managers

19 May 9.30 -12.30

Mental Health General Awareness

19 May 13.30 -16.30

All sessions are available for booking via staff connect

Outlines

Mental Health

• This Mental Health Awareness Training discusses mental health the way you would a headache or the flu, and it encourages you to take care of yourself and those around you.
• These courses raise awareness, they explains how to approach mental health and remove stigma; and provides simple tools, tips and ideas for day-to-day wellbeing-management (for yourself and others).

The Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Wellbeing session aims to strengthen personal resilience and build emotional intelligence

• Have an understanding and awareness of resilience and emotional intelligence
  Recognise and respond appropriately to workplace demands and pressures
• Explore ideas to overcome negative thinking and maintain a positive mind-set
  Build an individual positive projection of resilience and wellbeing in the workplace

The University is committed to protecting the privacy rights of those whose data it processes.

Whether we are processing the personal data of our students, staff, research participants or anyone else who has entrusted us with their personal data, we do so responsibly and in compliance with the law.

If we fail to meet those obligations, we lose the trust of those whose data we process. We also risk reputational damage, enforcement action and potential financial penalty.

To support staff in maintaining high standards around data protection, the Information Compliance Office has launched three new policies:

1.  Data Protection Policy 
2.  Data Breach Policy 
3.  Data Rights Policy 

They can also be viewed here under the Legal Requirements and Governance section .

By following these policies and completing their mandatory training, staff will be better able to ensure the University complies with its legal obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 and other associated legislation.

We would like to invite you to a buffet lunch as part of Kent’s International Visiting Academics Network (IVAN).

When:

Wednesday 11 March from 12.30 – 13.30

Where:

Gulbenkian Café

The network has been established to give you the opportunity to build on your existing connections at and beyond the University.

To book your place, visit the Eventbrite website.

Please email internationalevents@kent.ac.uk if you have any specific dietary requirements.

We look forward to seeing you there!

International Partnerships

We would like to make you aware of a vacancy that we are currently advertising on the University website within the Financial Reporting team.

This is an exciting role that will provide training as part of an Apprenticeship programme in accordance with the Professional Accounting Technician Standard. The successful applicant will work toward obtaining their full AAT qualification at the end of the Apprenticeship with the support of a mentor in the team.

The role is a full time post at Grade 4 on the apprenticeship scale.

Further details about the job can be found on the career webpages

Is your work digitally inclusive? Every one of us produces digital content in some form and now is the time to make sure it is accessible to everyone.

All our digital content should ‘perceivable, operable, understandable and robust’ in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA accessibility standard.

Why is this important?

Not only is this a great way to make Kent a more accessible place to work and study, but there is a legal deadline too. The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (2018) requires the University to make sure digital content is accessible to everyone by September 2020. So now is the time to start taking action!

What we are doing already:

• Site Editor – the new web template, is designed to be highly accessible. Digital guidelines are being shared with schools and departments to help prepare content for these webpages.

• A plugin in Moodle called Blackboard Ally is used by the majority of academic schools and professional service departments to make content more accessible. If you would like access to, Blackboard please contact opera@kent.ac.uk.

• Accessibility statements for the kent.ac.uk domain as well as Moodle.

Ensuring that all our work compliments the Kent Inclusive Practices (KIPs) that the University has already endorsed.

What you can do:

• Keep your digital content simple and efficient

• Make sure text is accessible to other applications

• Structure text with style sheets/semantic tags

• Ensure text can be personalised and reflows when magnified

• Always add short image descriptions, or alt-tags

• Use descriptive words in links

Check your content with the inbuilt Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Office 365

Find out more…

For more information, see the University’s digital guidelines. You can also find out more about how the University is rolling out the regulations on the digital accessibility e-learning package in Moodle.

Make a date in your diary for Thursday 11 and Friday 12 June 2020 for the Kent Digital Conference on Canterbury campus. For more event details and to book your free place, visit the Eventbrite website.

We want to make sure everyone is ready by September 2020 so look out for further content over the next few months! Any questions, please contact opera@kent.ac.uk 

The Accessibility Team (OPERA) 

Latest information on coronavirus, including updates and FAQs for staff, students and members of the public, is available on our coronavirus website.

The University has not been notified of any confirmed cases of coronavirus amongst our students, staff or visitors.

Our Coronavirus Response Group, led by Professor Christina Hughes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience, will continue to monitor the situation and is following the advice of Government agencies, including Public Health England, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the NHS.

Based on this advice, the University is fully open for business as usual. All our campus facilities and buildings are open.

As you may be aware, the Gulbenkian was informed on Sunday (1 March) that a family member of two cast members of the National Theatre ‘Connections’ production had tested positive for coronavirus. As a result, these cast members were advised to self-isolate as a precaution. The University sought the advice of Public Health England, and advised that no further action was required. The Gulbenkian continues to operate as normal.

For staff that may have travelled to one of the affected areas, or come into contact with someone who has, please follow the Public Heath England guidance. If you are concerned, please ring NHS on 111 or visit 111 online.

All students, staff and visitors in the UK are advised by the NHS to follow basic hygiene good practice in order to prevent the spread of germs and infection. Our coronavirus website includes the latest NHS public health campaign.

If you have any questions or concerns about the virus, please do make use of the NHS 111 service. You can also make use of our recently launched Employment Assistance Programme, which offers easy access to accredited counsellors. You can find out more about the service and how to access it on our Staff News webpages.

We will ensure that further updates on coronavirus and the University’s response are published as soon as possible on our coronavirus website.

Universities UK has announced that staff, students and parents who have queries about coronavirus can contact a new Department for Education helpline: 0800 046 8687 (8am-6pm, Monday-Friday).

If you have any enquiries on our response to coronavirus, or wish to find out more about what the University is doing, please email the Coronavirus Response Group: covid19@kent.ac.uk

In light of the University’s financial situation and the need to make significant savings in our staffing costs this year, we will be reopening the Kent Voluntary Severance Scheme from 9 March – 24 April.  

This Phase Two of the scheme will only be open to specific groups of staff, including those in areas where we know that savings will need to be made. The full Scheme details are available on the HR website, including more detailed information and FAQs. Any staff put at risk of redundancy as a result of subsequent changes under Organising for Success in June 2020 will have a further opportunity to apply for KVSS at that stage. 

We recently held a series of briefing sessions with managers so that they can answer any questions you may have regarding the Scheme. There will also be a series of drop-in sessions for staff where you will be able to discuss this directly with an HR representative – these are divided into hourly slots, and you can just turn up to whichever one suits you: 

• Tuesday 10 March – 14.00, 15.00, and 16.00 in Keynes Seminar Room 2
• Thursday 12 March – 12.00, 13.00 and 14.00 in Keynes Seminar Room 1 
• Wednesday 18 March – 14.00, 15.00 and 16.00 in Grimond Seminar Room 1
• Friday 20 March – 10.30, 11.30 and 12.30 in Kennedy Seminar Room 9
• Tuesday 24 March – 9.30, 10.30 and 11.30 in Darwin Seminar Room 14
• Thursday 26 March – 13.00, 14.00 and 15.00 in Keynes Seminar Room 20
• Wednesday 1 April – 11.00, 12.00 and 13.00, venue TBC
• Friday 3 April – 10.00, 11.00 and 12.00, venue TBC

More details on both the scheme and support available to staff will follow in further communications ahead of the Scheme opening on Monday.