Our Organising for Success webpages are being updated regularly.
Click on the webpages to find out the latest news and information, including new/amended Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on:
From this week (7 May), there is also a new section on our Student Guide to ensure our students are kept up to date on the University restructure.
Would you or someone you know like to join Kent Hospitality’s Reception team from June to October 2019?
Applicants will be required to work 15 to 35 hours per week including evenings and weekends. Hours will vary from week to week and are not guaranteed.
Applicants must be able to demonstrate exceptional levels of customer service, computing and cash handling skills, and the ability to work calmly and accurately under pressure, both alone and as part of a team.
The rates of pay are:
If you think this summer vacancy is for you, please apply by emailing your CV and a cover letter to Laura Maclean by emailing l.maclean@kent.ac.uk.
Closing date for applications: 17 May 2019. This may close early if we receive a large number of applications.
Booking is now open for The Universities at Medway fifth annual Festival of Learning, Teaching and Assessment which will take place on Thursday 12th September 2019, 9.30-14.30 in Pilkington Building Room 008, Medway Campus.
The Festival aims to share, celebrate and promote our practice to benefit all students studying on our Medway campus.
Our focus this year is on student engagement. It is a consistently strong theme that runs through the sector and is a priority for all three universities and their partner colleges.
Our keynote speaker will be Professor Colin Bryson of Newcastle University, who will be presenting with a student on ‘Where are we and where are we going with student engagement?’. Please see here for abstract and biography
We are currently inviting contributions in a variety of formats from practitioners, professional services staff, researchers and students. Please see call for papers.
To book a place at the Festival please complete the online booking form.
Colleagues are invited to attend the Learning & Teaching Network session taking place on Wednesday 22 May, from 13:15-14:30 in Rutherford Lecture Theatre 2.
Presented by Rebecca Coleman, EAP Tutor, Centre for English and World Language, the workshop looks at intelligibility support for international staff and support staff at the University of Kent. We aim to highlight the importance of these staff members being clearly understood and present common issues that they may face. There will be the opportunity to discuss intelligibly issues that you have encountered and individually and in groups look at ways of improving them. Further support offered by the Centre of English and World Languages (CEWL) in this domain will be mentioned at the end of the session.
To confirm your attendance please complete the online booking form.
Some of the University parking permit prices are increasing from 1 August 2019; this is the first increase since they were introduced in 2000.
Over the past 19 years, we have made a number of improvements to our parking facilities, including resurfacing and relining car parks, upgrading lighting and CCTV. The planned increase to permit charges will help offset some of our ongoing costs and enable us to work towards the objectives set out in the University Travel Plan
It is anticipated that permit prices will increase on 1 August each year in line with the RPI, and permit holders will be given three months’ notice of any increase.
View the parking permit charges webpage for more details.
KTV, Kent Union’s television station, was recently celebrated at the National Student Television Association (NaSTA) awards.
NaSTA comprises over forty affiliated student TV stations from all over the UK. Each year, the organisation runs an awards ceremony in which stations submit examples of their programming for appraisal by judges drawn from the wider broadcast industry. This year there were 465 award entries, and the awards were hosted at the University of Nottingham on 26 April.
KTV won the Jisc Special Recognition Award for their innovative training schemes, and Madeleine Bolton won the Best Dramatic Performance award for the KTV produced film, Sweet Child of Mine.
Sweet Child of Mine was written and directed by student Tyler Hamblin, who is completing his BA (Hons) in Film in the Department of Film. The drama was produced as part of the KTV Film Festival, and was also Highly Commended in Best Drama category, and shortlisted for Best Writing and Best Cinematography.
The station was also shortlisted in the Highly Commended in Light Entertainment category, shortlisted for the Mars El Brogy Multimedia Award (for working with Inquire and CSR), and also won Best Sports Coverage.
To see a segment of Sweet Child of Mine, please see KTV’s YouTube channel here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQAbDwGEiY0
Dr Olly Double, Reader in Drama in the School of Arts, appeared on BBC South East Today on Thursday 2 May 201, interviewed along with comedian Alexei Sayle regarding the Alternative Comedy Now Festival,which is currently ongoing at Kent.
‘Alternative comedy completely changed British stand-up comedy,’ explains Olly in the interview. ‘Before that there were a few people doing interesting things on the folk circuit, like Billy Connolly, but most stand-up comedy at that point was taking place in working men’s clubs and was based on unoriginal packaged jokes.’
Olly’s interview is followed in an interview with Alexei Sayle, which was recorded in the Gulbenkian Theatre on campus, prior to a show last week.
Managers across the University are invited to join in a Leaders’ Networking Event on Thursday 16 May in the Pavilion Café Bar from 10:00-15:00 .
The session will cover a workshop on ‘EDI @ Kent’ and a talk from external speaker Zac Ashkanasy on ‘Maintaining Resilience and Wellbeing while Leading through Change’.
The event is open to anyone who manages other colleagues or major projects at Kent. Participants will be encouraged to network and share their thoughts on EDI and their change experiences.
Refreshments will be available upon arrival and a buffet will be provided as part of a networking lunch from 12:00-12.45. Therefore, if you have any dietary requirements or other adjustments to enable you to participate effectively in the session, please let us know.
Agenda
Throughout this week (13-17 May), Learning & Organisational Development in conjunction with Kent Sport, external providers and members of staff and students are hosting a ‘Belong and Grow’ weekm which has been organised to enhance wellbeing and raise awareness of diversity and inclusion across the University. Activities and events are open to staff and students and a schedule of all sessions is available here.
This week in May has been chosen as it encompasses the following national events:
If you would like to attend, please email LDev@kent.ac.uk We look forward to hearing from you.
About Nous
Nous is a world-leading higher education advisory business. We were born in Australia where we are the one of the main advisers to the sector; a sector which has exploded with international student growth over the last decade. We have also been in the UK for the past four years and have worked closely with a growing number of institutions to more effectively target and attract local and domestic students. Clients tell us that we employ pretty savvy analytical techniques and are generally considered a ‘breath of fresh air’ when it comes to engaging stakeholders.
You can view Zac’s profile on the Nous Group webpages.
A new report released yesterday by Universities UK (UUK) and the National Union of Students (NUS) report into the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) student attainment gap in UK higher education says that universities must work to close the attainment gap (white students are statistically more likely to get a 2:1 or a First than BAME students).
The publication of the report, Black, Asian and minority ethnic student attainment at UK universities: #ClosingtheGap, follows contributions from 99 universities and student unions and six regional roundtable evidence sessions with 160 attendees on how the attainment gap should be tackled.
Dr Laura Bailey, Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Linguistics and Student Success Project Lecturer, comments on these findings: “the School of European Culture and Languages is very fortunate to be one of the seven pilot schools in the Student Success Project, which has been working for the last five years to close this gap. We’ve been gathering data and finding out what works. We’ve begun to develop racially diverse and inclusive environments by evaluating our reading lists, inviting speakers from diverse backgrounds and introducing staff awareness training. We need to have open conversations about race at every level, from individual students and staff to the highest levels of university management, and the School is leading the way on this. The BAME attainment gap is one of the most important issues facing higher education today, and we have to make some changes in the way we do things.”
Have you ever entered Eliot College and found yourself walking through corridors which look the same, unable to find your destination easily?
The Estates Department has been working to resolve this issue and Eliot College has been undergoing an internal signage refresh recently. Each wing is becoming colour-coded and each sign will correspond to the colour of the wing.
Jenny Martine, Interior Services & Signage Manager in the Estates Department explains the benefits this will bring “At every stairwell and decision point there will be large maps, directories and clear wayfinding. The scheme will add colour, improve the wayfinding process and bring the building up to date. This will hopefully reduce the anxiety of orientating around a complicated building.”
Eliot is the oldest College of the University of Kent. It was established in 1965, the same year the University opened, and is named after the poet T. S. Eliot. The nature of this mixed use building, with academic offices, study-bedrooms and several large areas for distinctive uses – teaching spaces, common rooms and the Great Hall with its views of the Cathedral, led to the adoption of a block design with the college divided into several square cores, each containing a distinctive interior space with study bedrooms or offices along all four walls. Given the complexity of the overall building design, and the challenges for internal navigation that this brings, the new clear and comprehensive signage solution should bring significant advantages for all.
The internal signage in Eliot College is scheduled for completion by 5 May and Rutherford College will commence shortly afterwards. Examples of the signage can be viewed on the Estates website here.
If you have any feedback regarding the new signage please let us know by emailing Estates Customer Services – estatescustomerservices@kent.ac.uk