The University of Kent celebrated Earth day last week (22 April) by joining the Race to Zero campaign along with over 70 other UK HE institutions, making public our pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

Race To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.

Catherine Morris, Environmental Adviser said:

‘I feel proud that by joining the Race to Zero, our senior leadership has made a public commitment to the net zero agenda and our contribution towards the sector’s leadership on a global level at COP26 in November 2021. I am looking forward to seeing the results of our open consultation with staff and students on how the university can tackle the issues of the climate emergency and I am excited to be part of developing the plans for how we will achieve our net zero target’

By joining we have committed to the following:

• Pledge: having a 2050 or sooner net zero target
• Plan: explain what steps will be taken toward achieving net zero
• Proceed: taking action towards net zero
• Publish: commit to report progress annually

We are currently developing the Carbon Management Plan which will set out how we plan to achieve our net zero target.

The university is committed net zero by 2040 in terms of activities it directly controls (such as university vehicles and campus electricity) and by 2050 – or sooner – in indirect emissions (such as those associated with waste and products purchased).

Achieving this will take action across the university from cutting long-haul air travel and reducing paper and plastic use to ensuring that our curriculum and research is aligned with the climate emergency.

All staff and students are invited to complete our consultation to give us your thoughts and ideas on how we can deliver this at Kent. We want to hear from as many people as possible to ensure that our plans reflect the way we want to live, learn and work in the future.

You can also find out more about Kent’s response to the climate emergency by visiting the sustainability webpages or through their social media accounts: Instagram/Twitter

A new online guide for parents-to-be at the University is now available.

The Parents Pack has been created by our Athena SWAN team, in response to comments, questions and queries from parents and carers via focus groups, workshop, surveys and interviews.

The new pack is a source of key information for both those becoming parents while working at Kent and their line managers. Sections include:

• Before becoming a parent (including maternity leave and pay, and shared parental leave)
• When life does not go as planned (eg additional leave and pay for premature babies)
• During your leave (eg keeping in touch)
• Returning to work
• Work-life/home-life balance (eg flexible working), and
• Childcare support (eg workplace nursery salary sacrifice scheme)

The new guide is available now on our HR webpages. If you have any questions/ comments, don’t hesitate to contact: athenaswan@kent.ac.uk

University of Kent’s Special Collections & Archives service has been awarded over £110,000 to assist with the digitising of its collections, through the Capability for Collections (CapCo) fund, administered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Special Collections & Archives, based in the Templeman Library, Canterbury campus, preserve and manage the University’s unique and distinctive collections so that they are accessible for the benefit of teaching, scholarship and society. Collections include the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive and British Cartoon Archive. They are proud to hold Archive Service Accreditation from the National Archives in recognition of their professional standards in acquiring, preserving and providing access to the collections.

Karen Brayshaw, Special Collections & Archives Manager explains:

“The funding will allow us to purchase vital digitising equipment to help with providing online access to the recently deposited Beaverbrook Foundation’s collection of original cartoon artworks and digitising the highly visual original costume designs, theatre playbills and posters from the David Drummond Pantomime Collection”.

The grant will also support collaborative opportunities across the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (ICCI) and Eastern ARC, enabling the University to participate in future special collections and archives digitisation projects.

Main image: Illustrated programme for the pantomime Dick Whittington at Drury Lane Theatre from the David Drummond Collection.

Further Information:

• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is investing £213m to expand and upgrade existing research infrastructure to help UK researchers tackle major challenges such as COVID-19 research and recovery, and net zero goals.
• The projects, spread across the UK, will provide UK researchers with advanced equipment, facilities and technology, and cement the UK’s position as a world-leading research and innovation superpower.
• The investment will ensure the UK is the best place in the world for scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs to live, work and innovate. This will help to power up economic recovery and level up the UK.
• The £213m, from the government’s World Class Labs funding scheme and made through eight of UKRI’s constituent research councils, covers investments in all disciplines from physical sciences to arts and humanities.
• This includes a landmark £15m investment in the arts and humanities which will go to securing the future of the UK’s galleries, libraries, archives and museums.
• UKRI is investing £15m in the Capability in Collections fund as part of the World Class Labs project.

Kent’s Special Collections and Archives hold over 150 collections including:

• The British Stand-Up Comedy Archive and popular and comic performance from the Victorian era to the present, including pantomime, melodrama and variety works including the David Drummond Pantomime Collection
• The British Cartoon Archive and other cartoon artwork and publications, particularly satirical works
• The history of the University of Kent and the local area
• Photographs, scrapbooks, engineer records, and published books relating to wind and watermills
• Collections of 20th century prose and poetry first editions.

For further information contact Karen Brayshaw, Special Collections & Archives Manager.

The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a great resource for staff. It provides emotional support through telephone assessment at any time of the day. If the assessment shows it is appropriate, staff can access up to 8 sessions of face to face or telephone counselling. Care first also operates a system of telephone support with call handlers with trained expertise in life solutions, for example, debt, benefits. legal, family and caring responsibilities.

Care first runs webinars on a variety of subjects every week. You can now watch a recording of a webinar for University of Kent staff that took place on Wednesday 14 April, and learn more on what the EAP has to offer, first hand.

There are a number of Development sessions available for staff to make the most of. To access all sessions and find out further information on each one please visit the HR-T&OD Staff Training MS Teams Channel.

Here’s a summary of each session that you can sign up to:

Active Bystander Training

• The training will provide the skills to challenge unacceptable behaviour including those that have become normalised
• The session will include group discussion and interactivity and each delegate will receive a PDF ‘Active Bystander’ toolkit booklet, which contains the main techniques covered in the session.

Cultural Fluency Course available

• This course sets out to develop your cultural fluency and adaptability when working in a multicultural team or society. It will help you become familiar with the concept of intercultural communication and cultural fluency; and will allow you to develop and improve your skills related to this field.

Eligibility Checking Training sessions available

• These sessions aims to provide information on why we ask for eligibility, employer obligations and the correct process to verify and copy eligibility documentation

Free staff Webinars 

5 free spaces on each of the following Webinars:

• Deaf awareness
• Managing stress and worry
• Eliminating unconscious bias – taking the science to the next level
• Tackling racism – what we have learnt in the year since George
  Floyd’s death
• Support before, during and after a career break
• Managing change inclusively
• Neurodiversity in the workplace
• Staff Network Leads Best Practice

Staff Training Module

Equality Impact Analysis Module: This module is for staff who are required to conduct an EIA. It introduces equality analysis principles and how to prepare and carry out an effective EIA

Crucial Conversations

This could be the programme for you if you have ever wanted to:

• Better understand what makes a conversation ‘crucial’
• Identify the conversations that you’re not holding (or not holding well)
• Stay in productive dialogue when you’re angry, scared or hurt
• Speak persuasively, not abrasively
• Be able to talk to almost anyone about almost anything
• Turn your crucial conversations into action and results

Dear Colleagues,

As we continue to follow the Government’s roadmap for ending lockdown, we are looking ahead to how and when we will be able to welcome more staff back to campus. A number of you joined our staff webchat earlier today where our incoming Director of HR Martin Atkinson talked through our overall approach to this, which centres on gradually relaxing criteria for returning to campus in line with key changes to Government guidance.  

We have now written to Directors of Divisions and Departments with new guidance in place from 10 May to align with the start of the summer term, with more options for coming back on site for those that want to and whose home set–up is causing them difficulties. This is another important moment for us and, all being well later in the summer, we will be able to open our doors more widely as lockdown eases and more life returns to our campuses ahead of next year. 

These changes will need to go hand-in-hand with associated plans for more staff to able to split their working week both on and off campus. These are currently being finalised and will require careful consideration across a number of areas to ensure we get the balance right, including drawing on insights from our Future of Work survey. However, I hope the option of more remote working will be of real benefit to many of you as we think about the ways we want to work in future.  

Throughout lockdown, we have also tried to broaden some of our staff communications to help keep everyone fully informed at an especially busy time. As more staff return to campus, we are thinking about how to keep this going in the right way, including ways to evolve the current staff webchats into a regular series throughout the year so we all keep having the chance to come together and talk things through.  

We will share more plans on this shortly – in the meantime, thank you for your continued hard work and I hope to see more of you over the summer term as we open up our campuses further. 

With my best wishes to you and your families, 

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

Ahead of National Gardening Week 2021 (26 April-2 May 2021), we talk to Chris Wright, the University’s Landscape and Grounds Supervisor, and Emily Mason, Sustainability Coordinator.

Tell us about your roles and a typical day?  

Chris: I coordinate maintenance of the University’s natural spaces – everything from grass-cutting, bed and shrub maintenance, to woodland and pond management and looking after memorial trees and benches. I also oversee management of our sports facilities, working with staff and students on projects that use our green spaces.

A typical day starts with briefing my ten-person team on what needs doing across our 300-acre Canterbury campus. My responsibilities include overseeing planning for future works and developing our new Landscape and Biodiversity Strategy. We work alongside the sustainability team to ensure our management plans align with biodiversity enhancement and support natural space for wildlife as well as people.

Emily: I support sustainability projects across our campuses and provide expertise on specific sustainability topics like biodiversity management and behaviour change solutions. One of my projects is the Kent Community Oasis Garden, which I oversee in partnership with East Kent Mind.

Because my role is so varied, I don’t have a typical day, but I often work with our Sustainability Champions, who embed sustainability into their work. Both Chris and I recognise how lucky Kent is to have beautiful campuses for staff and students to enjoy.

Who else is involved in looking after our green campus?

There are many volunteers and sub-contractors who help look after our campus.

Subcontractors support our woodland management by carrying out coppicing rotations on our behalf. Students and staff help with litter picking, biodiversity monitoring, supporting our Hedgehog Friendly Campus project and using the green spaces for educational purposes. Student societies provide feedback and ideas of how we can improve the site alongside the Staff Sustainability Champions network.

We also work with Grounds teams from other universities sharing best practice on sustainable management techniques.

What can you tell us about the Kent Community Oasis Garden (KentCOG)?

KentCOG is a partnership community garden run by East Kent Mind and the University. It recognises the important role outdoor spaces play in supporting good mental health. KentCOG provides a space for students, staff and the community to learn about growing sustainable food in a calming outdoors environment. It runs practical and digital workshops on ecotherapy, dealing with low mood and anxiety.

The partnership ensures continuity throughout the year with community members keeping the garden going when students aren’t on site.

How has the pandemic affected your work?

All Landscape and Grounds staff were stood down during the first lockdown to reduce numbers on campus. This coincided with the start of the growing season, so when we returned we prioritised restoration of central areas.

During lockdown 2, we were partially furloughed again, meaning our usual winter management didn’t happen, but we’ve planned our Winter 2021 programme to catch up by the end of year. Our contractors were able to continue coppicing, so our woodland and tree management plans are still on track.

It’s been hard, but the team have coped very well. We hope people have come to value outdoor spaces even more during the pandemic and will enjoy the campuses’ beautiful landscape when they return.

KentCOG has been closed for most of the pandemic. However, volunteers are now working to restore the site, so we can reopen for events this summer and, hopefully, permanently in September. We have run digital sessions in lieu of practical gardening and will be shortly launching a series of wellbeing workshops for students during the exam term.

As more of us start returning to campus, what can we expect to see?

We’re keen to emphasise the use of outdoor spaces as safe places for staff and students.

We’re collaborating with Kent Sport in restoring the nature trail at Canterbury, which they’ve publicised alongside their marked-out running routes. We’ve also recently installed a new walking trail from the Canterbury campus to the KentCOG following the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and are developing walking tours led by staff from Landscape and Grounds and the Sustainability Team.

Areas on campus have been marked to be developed as wildflower meadows over the next year. We’ve also commissioned the building of new hibernaculas, providing shelter for important pollinators and other insects. We’ve planted bulbs across 1,000 sq m so people can enjoy seeing new plants popping up over the seasons. Alliums are due next!

We are also hoping to work with the University of Greenwich to enhance green spaces at Medway and create a walking route linking both ends of the campus

How can staff help look after our campus green spaces and the KentCOG?

Staff are invited to complete our consultation on the Landscape and Biodiversity of our campuses – we’re keen to have lots of ideas for our new Landscape and Biodiversity strategy.

Volunteers are welcome at our open sessions at KentCOG. We’ll let you know as soon as we re-open – in the meantime, you can join our mailing list by emailing kentcog@kent.ac.uk.

You can also find out more about what we do and get in touch via our social media accounts:

Sustainability Instagram/Twitter

Landscape and Grounds Instagram/Twitter

Kent’s international partner in the GCRF COMPASS Project, ADA University (Azerbajan) has organised a high-profile talk on ‘Brexit: What’s happened and does what does the future hold’ by Professor Anand Menon.  The lecture is taking place online at 12.30 – 13.30 on Thursday 22 April and is open to all academic staff and researchers.  For access to the online lecture please contact ceeus@ada.edu.az

The COMPASS project works with partners in Cambridge, Belarusian State University (BSU), Tajik National University (TNU) and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED) in Uzbekistan to connect research, policy and people globally.  The COMPASS project seeks to establish ‘regional hubs of excellence’ at the top-level HEIs in Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia to enable them to become our lead research partners and ‘nodes of excellence’ for knowledge production and transfer across the region and beyond.

See the COMPASS website for more information about the project and its partners.

Guest lecturer

Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London.  He also directs the UK in a Changing Europe project.  His areas of research interest include the policies and institutions of the European Union, European security and British politics.  He is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of the European Union (OUP, 2020) and co-author of Brexit and British Politics (Polity 2018). He is a trustee of Full Fact, a member of the Strategic Council of the European Policy Centre, a Council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate fellow of Chatham House.

Lecturer in US History, Dr Erik Mathisen, has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for his new research project, ‘Free Labour & Emancipation in the Nineteenth Century Atlantic World’.

Dr Mathisen shares: ‘”Free Labour & Emancipation in the Nineteenth Century Atlantic World” examines how ideas about free labour (selling our work for a wage) became wrapped up in struggles over the abolition of African slavery, the emancipation of enslaved peoples, and the chaotic expansion of capitalism in the nineteenth century.

‘Focused on the British Caribbean, the United States and Cuba, the project will chart the history of how the problems of emancipation exposed the contradictions of free labour, not only in places where slavery dominated, but in the lives of working people throughout the Atlantic World. As I hope this project will show, the age of emancipation was one in which freedom and coercion were shaped by the ideas and actions of a broad range of people: missionaries and political economists, but also enslaved people on plantations, day labourers, domestic servants, factory workers and more. Free labour is also intimately connected to a global race for empire and labour in the last decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This project ties these threads together, showing how the Age of Emancipation built the foundations of the Age of Empire.

‘It occurred to me that the precarity of work in so much of our economy now, as well as the terms of debate about how work is talked about in popular culture, makes a virtue of the freedom and flexibility to work but obscures the coercion that so many face. Students this year who are taking my Special Subject, “The Age of Emancipation,” have also played a huge part in the project. Spending time thinking through their questions each week has helped me enormously to clarify my own ideas. I hope that when it is finished, they will see some of their fingerprints on parts of the book too!’