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Testing out a theory

Covid-19 update: Return to campus

From Professor Richard Reece | DVC Education and Student Experience

On Tuesday, the Government confirmed that students in England will now only be able to return to universities for face-to-face teaching from 17 May at the earliest. This is disappointing news for all of us, and I have written to students today to update them and share our frustration at this further disruption to their studies.

Latest Government proposals

Under the latest guidance announced yesterday, students who are still off campus can only return for face-to-face teaching no earlier than 17 May, in line with the next phase of ending lockdown. As we are now moving into the exam term after the Easter break, our focus will therefore be on continuing to support students wherever they are based and ensuring we are doing everything we can to help them achieve the best possible outcome in their online exams from 10 May onwards. There is more information on support available for students on our Student Guide.

The Government announced further details on asymptomatic testing requirements when students do return, plans to provide home-testing kits for students and an additional £15m in hardship funding to support those most in need. We are awaiting further details on what this means for us at Kent and will share more information as soon as possible.

Kent Summer plans

After what has been such a difficult year for everyone, we are determined to give our students a chance to come together to mark the end of the academic year. We are currently developing joint plans with our Students’ Unions to run a programme of activity throughout the summer term culminating in a two-week celebration at the end of June. We will provide further updates on this as soon as possible and I hope a number of you across the University will be able to help with shaping plans as they come together.

Professor Richard Reece | DVC Education and Student Experience

Challenging Racism – Live Webinar 19 April and Inclusion Circle 22 April

Continuing with our ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign, staff are invited to join us at two key events – a Live Webinar on 19 April and an Inclusion Circle session on 22 April.

For our final Live Webinar on Monday 19 April at 13.00, we are delighted to welcome Dr Jason Arday on ‘Let’s talk about race’. The 90-minute online webinar is facilitated by Inclusive Employers, with a guest speaker, panel discussion and Q&A session.

We will be looking at why talking about race is difficult and why silence is so damaging to all of us, including:

What we can all do to encourage and improve conversations around race
Language and saying the ‘wrong’ thing
Top tips for starting conversations about race

Dr Jason Arday is an Associate Professor in Sociology at Durham University and Deputy Executive Dean for People and Culture in the Faculty of Social Science and Health. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at The Ohio State University in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, an Adjunct Professor at Nelson Mandela University and a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading Race Equality think tank. He is a presenter, with Heidi Mirza, of a podcast on Dismantling Race in Higher Education.

Book your place today via Eventbrite. You can listen to our two previous live webinars on the Challenging Racism Together webpages (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Inclusion Circle

Our next Inclusion Circle ‘Taking action on race inequality and inclusion’ will take place on Thursday 22 April at 10.00, and is open to staff from all ethnic backgrounds.

The aim of the Inclusion Circles is to create a safe environment to listen to staff concerns, shared lived experiences, discuss a variety of topics, and show solidarity. The 90-minute session is facilitated by Inclusive Employers consultants Aminata Pungi and Addison Barnett, and will include:

An open discussion on how to tackle racial inequality.
A facilitated conversation focusing on the problems and ideas for solutions.

Spaces are limited so please email ChallengingRacism@Kent.ac.uk if you would like to join.

About Challenging Racism

The aim of the ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign is to promote unity, not division and to help understand and develop more inclusive behaviours. To do that, we all need to increase our awareness and understanding of racism and how it can be tackled within Kent, to ensure all staff and students feel safe and empowered.

Please share this and encourage your contacts and teams to sign-up so that we can all work together and take the first steps to address racism at Kent and beyond. If you have any questions, email challengingracism@kent.ac.uk

#EDI #challengingracismtogether #choosetochallenge

Marking Ramadan 2021

Ramadan begins on the evening of Monday 12 April and ends on the evening of Wednesday 12 May 2021. Muslims follow the lunar calendar, so the exact start and end dates depend on the sighting of the moon so these dates can vary slightly.

Ramadan is followed by the festival of Eid-ul- Fitr, a celebration to mark the end of Ramadan, which will take start on the evening of Wednesday 12 May and the evening of Thursday 13 May 2021.

What is Ramadan?

Ramadan is the name of the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

Muslims believe it is the month during which the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) over 1400 years ago. Ramadan is the holiest month of the year for Muslims and it is considered that the reward of good deeds during this month are multiplied several fold.

During Ramadan, from dawn until sunset, Muslims are obliged to abstain from all forms of food, drink (including water), smoking and sexual activity. Most Muslims will wake before dawn for a meal before the start of their fast (also known as Suhoor), and break their fast (also known as Iftar) with dates and water at sunset, and then a meal.

This year, fasts in the UK will last around 15-16 hours. The start and end times vary as the month progresses.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. The overall purpose of the fast is to gain Taqwa (which means to gain piety or God consciousness). This is achieved through an increase in prayers, reading the Qur’an, self-reflection and self-discipline.

Find out more

For further information and guidance for managers and staff, take a look at the Inclusive employers Ramadan 2021 fact sheet.

Welcome to Chris Sleeman, Interim Head of Admissions

From Simone Davies, Director of MORA

I am delighted to welcome Chris Sleeman, Interim Head of Admissions, to MORA (Marketing, Outreach, Recruitment and Admissions).

Chris joins us from Regent’s University London, where he was Head of Admissions and held a variety of roles during his 10-year career at the institution. Prior to entering Higher Education, Chris worked in business development and business support/consultancy, building networks, and implementing process improvements. Over the coming months, Chris’s focus will be on leading the team, post a review of admissions, to improve processes and services to benefit our applicants and the University.

I am sure you will join me in welcoming Chris to the University of Kent.

Simone Davies | Director of MORA

Next Generation Impact event – ‘Perspectives on Impact’

The University’s Research Excellence Team, in collaboration with KMTV, present ‘Next Generation Impact’, the first streamed impact series for all levels of academic and professional staff across our sector.

The series will tackle all aspects of the impact agenda, from engagement to working in partnership and funding impact activities. With panels of esteemed experts within the field, pertinent and provocative questions will be addressed as the ‘Next Generation’ of impact is considered in terms of expertise, maturation of research impacts, and how we move forward as a sector in facilitating and maximising impacts.

The first virtual event titled ‘Perspective on Impact will be taking place Monday 26 April between 12.00 – 13.00. Find out who will be on the live panel on the Next Generation webpage and book your place via Eventbrite.

The team look forward to seeing you there!

Entries for THE Awards 2021 now open

Entries for the Times Higher Education Awards 2021 are now open.

Entries are invited from UK higher education institutions (and for the first time, in Ireland too) across 19 categories, which will be shortlisted and judged by an expert panel, with this year’s categories listed below.

This year focuses primarily on the 2019-20 academic year, so that includes brilliant responses to the many unforeseen challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the judges are aware that lots of work took place during that period that was unrelated to or unaffected by the pandemic, and are keen to read about those too.

University of the Year
Business School of the Year
International Collaboration of the Year
Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year
Most Innovative Teacher of the Year
Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community
Outstanding Entrepreneurial University
Outstanding Estates Team
Outstanding Library Team
Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team
Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year
Outstanding Support for Students
Outstanding Technician of the Year
Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Project of the Year: STEM
Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year
Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year
THE Outstanding Achievement Award

Winners will be announced at a glittering hopefully in-person ceremony in late November.

Corporate Communications will once again be co-ordinating Kent’s award entries this year and is happy to support schools/departments with their submissions. Please email Corporate Communications by Friday 21 May if you know of a potential entry – deadline for all completed entries is Wednesday 9 June.

Further information on the awards is available on the THE Awards 2021 website.

Picture shows: Murray Smith, Professor of Film at the School of Arts, who was shortlisted for Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year at the THE Awards 2020.

Covid-19 update – 8 April 2021

From 12 April, we will be moving into Step 2 of the Government’s roadmap to ease the country out of lockdown. From Monday, non-essential retail can reopen along with some entertainment venues and hospitality outlets.

For example, on the Canterbury campus, Kent Sport will open its indoor gym facilities and other services as outlined on its website. The main Co-op store and Library Café will also reopen.

In line with the roadmap guidance, all staff should continue to work from home unless they are deemed critical or essential workers. If you are working on or accessing campus, having followed the latest Government guidance and are Covid-19 symptom-free, it is very important that you get tested twice a week. We are offering asymptomatic Covid-19 testing for both students and staff at both Canterbury and Medway. Booking is currently open at the two sites.

Graduations

We recently wrote to all our final year students confirming our delayed plans for this year’s graduations. While everyone will still receive their certificate so there should be no need to delay plans for employment or further study, it is important that every Kent student can enjoy the graduation ceremony they deserve. Unfortunately, we are unable to guarantee this for this summer – however, we will be welcoming all our final year students to celebrate their graduation at Canterbury or Rochester Cathedral next May.

Summer celebrations

We are working on joint plans with our Students’ Unions to make the most of summer and celebrate the end of term, including a festival fortnight of fun and community on our Canterbury and Medway campuses from 21 June to 2 July. We are aiming to have something for everyone, with music events, outdoor catering, sports programmes, screenings, workshops and much more to coincide with the planned removal of Government restrictions.

Watch out for further announcements on this soon, and I hope as many students and staff as possible can join activities when we can this summer and come together safely to mark the end of a difficult year for everyone.

Richard Reece | DVC Education and Student Experience

Politics student wins Best Thesis in Political Theory 2020!

Hollie Mackenzie has won the Sir Ernest Barker Prize for best doctoral thesis in political theory in 2020 from the Political Studies Association (U.K.). The prize was judged by a panel of ‘esteemed and knowledgeable colleagues’ in political studies. Hollie will be awarded her prize at the Political Studies Annual Conference, April 2021.

Hollie’s thesis is titled ‘A Schizo-Revolutionary Labial Art-Politics’ and in keeping with the argument of the thesis and Hollie’s artistic practice it was presented as a sculptural piece in its own right.

The thesis was examined by Prof. Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht) and Prof. Maria Drakopoulou (Kent). In the words of Prof. Braidotti: ‘the experimental form as art project is both daring and perfectly attuned to the theme and thus suited to the content matter: a feminist practice of aesthetic and theoretical resistance’.

Upon hearing news of the prize, Hollie commented: ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be awarded this prize. It was a huge risk to submit an art-thesis instead of a traditional thesis, and the determination and hard work paid off. Creating an enfolded piece of scholarly writing and a melting sculpture was my feminine reinvention of the traditional idea of a thesis to challenge the hypermasculine systems, structures and content in which theses are written and defended in the discipline of political theory, and being awarded the Sir Ernest Barker Prize from the Political Studies Association confirms that a schizo-revolutionary labial art-politics is a welcomed and timely approach to creatively confront the hypermasculine institutionalisation of knowledge.

‘The experience of the art-thesis also presents a challenge to the reader that was welcomed by Braidotti and Drakopoulou, who both commended it was ‘highly innovative’, ‘highly original’, and ‘more approachable and enjoyable’. It is a pleasure to see that my call for different forms of expression, teaching and learning within political theory is being welcomed and I hope that it invites others to create a much needed space for feminine difference through their own responses to the question of what a schizo-revolutionary labial art-politics might become.’

Nadine Ansorg, Head of School, commented: ‘Hollie’s thesis radically challenges existing notions of how a PhD dissertation might be executed and look like, and fundamentally questions the hypermasculine institutionalisation of knowledge. By way of artistic practice, Hollie provides new ways of a feminine artistic problem of what a thesis may become for generations to come.’

The thesis was co-supervised by Dr Iain MacKenzie (Kent) and Anna Cutler (Tate), with Dr Harmonie Toros serving as second supervisor.

Hollie was also awarded the University of Kent Social Sciences Seminar Teaching Prize 2018

Staff Wellbeing Yammer Group

Are you interested in what is going on with Staff Wellbeing at the University? Are you involved in organising communications and events related to wellbeing in your local divisions or teams?

Then join the Staff Wellbeing Yammer group! This has been put together by Occupational Health and Wellbeing to form an energised and informed community focussing on staff wellbeing at the University. It’s for every member of staff, whatever role they perform.

The Yammer feed will keep you up to date with what’s going on. And, it will let you spread the word to others about the wellbeing events and initiatives you organise. The feed will promote discussion about wellbeing at Kent and foster a sense of community, which, in itself, helps to enhance people’s sense of wellbeing. The more people who join up, the greater the level of interaction.

Nothing to lose, all that can happen is that you are more informed!

Celebrating our Knowledge Exchange Framework results

The University has been rated highly for skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship in this years’ Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) assessment.

The KEF, which proposes a third pillar of university activity assessment alongside the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), graded Kent in the top 20% of our cluster group for our skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship development, and in the top 40% for our local growth and regeneration focus.

We were assessed across seven unique perspectives of knowledge exchange activity and compared with 20 other UK higher education institutions under an umbrella cluster ‘X’. This cluster consists of large, research-intensive, broad-discipline universities undertaking a significant amount of world-leading research.

You can find out more about our KEF success on our News Centre pages.

Webinar introducing KEF and KEC

Ahead of the announcement of the KEF results, Research and Innovation Services (RIS) welcomed practitioners from PraxisAuril, Research England and Universities UK to talk to Research and Innovation (R&I) staff from across the University about the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and the Knowledge Exchange Concordat (KEC).

The event was an opportunity for staff to increase their understanding of the KEF and KEC, and build their confidence in how they can play a part in the University’s Knowledge Exchange activity and reporting. A full recording of the webinar is available to watch online here, or you can read about it here on the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation blog.