What better way to kick off the new term than with a bit of music at lunchtime?!
The Music Department’s Lunchtime Concert series sees in the new term on Weds 22 January with the award-winning ‘Trials of Cato,’ a blend of guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and vocals that won Best Album in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2019.
Admission is free, suggested donation £3.
To find more details please visit the Music at Kent website
Kostas Gravanis, who is undertaking a PhD in History and Philosophy of Art in the School of Arts, has won a Samuel H. Kress Research Fellowship in Renaissance Art History from the Renaissance Society of America.
Kostas’ PhD project is provisionally entitled ‘Sources, Functions and Meaning of Imagery in the Vatican’s Raphael Rooms’. His PhD supervisors are Professor Tom Henry and Dr Ben Thomas.
The funding will support research for the last chapter of his thesis, based upon the Sala di Costantino – one of the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Palace.
To read more about the grants and awards from the Renaissance Society of America, please see their website
The University of Kent will be hosting a monthly walking netball session at the Canterbury Campus Sports Centre.
When: All sessions will take place on a Wednesday, from 10.00 – 11.00
The dates are:
Wed 22 January 2020
Wed 5 and 19 February 2020
Wed 4 and 18 March 2020
Wed 1 and 15 April 2020
Where: All sessions are indoors at: University of Kent Sports Centre, Canterbury Campus,
Who: The sessions are aimed at 55+. No experience is necessary. Please wear suitable clothing and footwear for indoor activity and don’t forget your water bottle!
How: A minimum of Kent Sport Community ‘Pay to Play’ Membership is required, with £4.50 per session (plus annual £5 membership fee. See website for all membership options.
Pay and display parking is available at the back of the Sports Centre (£2 parking fee can be refunded at reception).
No need to book, just come along. The sessions are an ideal opportunity to be active in a fun, enjoyable and social environment.
You can see what is involved by watching this Youtube video
Please join us for some well-earned refreshments in the Sports Centre Café after the session.
For further information call 01227 816391 or email: sportsdevelopment@kent.ac.uk
Organising for Success brings together work that will empower staff to transform our students lives, helping us meet our Kent 2025 strategy and ensure a future we can be proud of.
Following changes to Executive Group and appointments to key senior roles, next week (w/c 20 January) we will begin consulting with senior leaders in central professional service directorates on a revised leadership structure to support the new divisions. We have recently updated the FAQs section of the website to cover feedback around this following our update in December.
Other activity underway across the project includes:
Professional Service / Division Workshops
We are currently organising a series of workshops with senior central professional service managers and our new Directors of Operations, which will begin the process of establishing a new operating model for divisions and professional services, along with defining the relationship between the two. These ‘kick off’ workshops will incorporate the work of Strand 3 and Strand 4 of Organising for Success, focusing on which activities and decisions fall where, along with capturing the processes we need to consider ahead of launching our new academic divisions.
Alongside this, we are currently making changes to the governance structure of the project to reflect the overlap between the two strands and recent staff changes, which will be shared more widely once they have been agreed with the Oversight Group.
Directors of Operations
The latest allocation of Directors of Operations to academic divisions is as follows:
Division of Humanities: Kerry Barber
Division of Natural Sciences: James Redmond
Kent Business School: Paul Verrion
Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences: John Crook
Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice: Rachel MacPhee
Recruitment to the remaining posts is ongoing. There is more information on the Transitional Arrangements section of the Organising for Success website.
‘Town Hall’ events for managers
We will shortly be holding a series of ‘Town Hall’ meetings for managers on the changes underway at the University through both Organising for Success and our wider financial recovery plans. These are designed to give those with significant line-management responsibilities a full understanding of the planned changes and their context, along with tips and resources to help with communicating with their teams. Learning and Organisational Development will be coordinating the sessions with support from the Organising for Success project team and will be communicating the details shortly.
Looking to get a better understanding on the university’s many and varied international funding streams? Then this event is just for you!
Date: 21 January 2020
Time: 09.00 – 12.30
Location: Darwin Conference Suite
The session will include an overview of the opportunities which can support research, education and training. In this session, we will focus on GCRF, Research Councils, Erasmus+ and case studies from across the University.
Guest Speaker: Rachael Sara-Kennedy – Head of Strategic Partnerships, UUKi.
To register your attendance, please click here to fill out the following form:
For further information please contact:
T: 01227 82 3908
E:deaninternational@kent.ac.uk
or visit the website
As part of the Discover STEM@Kent lecture series the School of Computing will be hosting two lectures, open to students, staff and the wider community, looking at technology and the modern world.
In the first lecture Dr Tomas Petricek will discuss ‘Making Data Relevant in an Age of Fake News’
When: Monday 20 January at 15.00-16.00
Where: Cornwallis Central Lecture Theatre 1
Governments and journalists have access to increasing amounts of raw data about the world, making it possible to produce factual reports based on solid evidence. At the same time post-truth politics means that data and facts are becoming less relevant in public debate. Can more transparent, open and engaging ways of working with data reverse this dangerous trend? In this talk, Tomas will discuss how novel research on tools for data exploration and data visualization can help. Along the way, he will show a number of fun examples, looking at data about the UK government spending, Olympic medals and financial markets. Open to all, just come along.
In the second lecture Dr Colin Johnson will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Will a Robot take my Job? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work’.
When: Wednesday 5 February at 17.00-19.00
Where: Grimond Lecture Theatre 3.
A new industrial revolution is upon us, as intelligent machines take the place of humans across the economy. The impact of this could be vast – from increasingly sophisticated robots carrying out manual work, to artificial intelligence doing work in the law and accounting, through to robots working in the most human of jobs such as health and social care. This talk will examine whether the hype around AI is justified, which areas of work this will revolutionise, and which jobs will be untouched.
Please book for this event via the Eventbrite website
A Mexican wave in a football stadium, a heartbeat, the motion of slime mould, and oxidation wave in certain chemical reactions are all examples of excitable waves.
We’re very pleased to welcome Professor Paul Sutcliffe from Durham University as our guest speaker at the SMSAS Public Lecture on 15 January 2020. His talk will describe the mathematical modelling of excitable waves and how this can be used to understand some unusual wave patterns created recently in chemical experiments that produce a happy reaction.
When: Wednesday 15 January 2020, 18.00 -19.00
Where: Sibson Lecture Theatre 3
To book your free place please do so via Eventbrite
You are warmly invited to attend the next E-Learning Forum titled ‘Tracking student progress and activity in Moodle’.
When: Tuesday 28 January from 12.00 – 13.30
Where: UELT Seminar Room
In this session we will:
To book a place, please complete the online booking form
The new exhibition in Colyer-Fergusson Gallery celebrates the bicentenary of the birth of Sir John Tenniel, cartoonist and illustrator of the first publication of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland.’
The display, which is open until Friday 28 February, presents a series of images which brought so vividly to life many of the characters in Carroll’s classic tale – Alice, the Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Mock Turtle – as the Music department prepares to perform a nineteenth-century ‘Musical Dream Play’ adaptation of the novel, first performed in 1886 and overseen by the author himself.
The exhibition is free to attend and open during normal working hours, with disabled access. Come and take a walk through pages of the novel and step into Alice’s world…
Burn off all those mince pies and get ready to take on the Row Britannia Challenge this term.
The challenge
To row 2020 miles by 13 March 2020. It’s a big goal (around 3.25 million metres) and we need your help to get there. Additionally, we’ve been challenged to raise £3,000 for Sport Relief, to help mental health charities across the country.
We officially launch the challenge on Wednesday 15 January 2020, with a special appearance from Row Britannia to help us along. More information about the launch event to follow on our Facebook event page.
How you can help
Support the challenge by donating and rowing as much as possible, all donations and distances are welcome. With your help, Row Britannia could raise a total of £1.5 million for Sport Relief if every university and college in the UK raises £3,000 each. In addition to raising vital funds, the positive awareness of mental health, fitness and well-being that they would raise within their communities could be extraordinary. The University of Kent has taken on this challenge and we need you to get rowing!
You can still clock your distance and donate after the 15 January, just visit the Sports Centre to take part. We will set up a rowing area with a moderator that will be recording all the miles rowed.
If you want to donate to Row Britannia, visit our Just Giving page. If you have any questions you can email sportsenquiries@kent.ac.uk