Campus News
Webinars for managers and team leaders
September 9th, 2020
The Leadership and Management Academy are running a series of webinars to offer managers and team leaders practical guidance and support while working away from the office.
Upcoming webinars include:
Wednesday 16 September: 2pm-2.50pm and Thursday 8 October: 10am-10.50am
Webinar: Returning to campus: practical considerations when bringing your team members back to campus (HR)
There are many practical considerations that need to be made before allowing colleagues to return to campus, with specific processes to be followed to ensure safety for our staff, students and wider University community. In this webinar members of the HR team will walk you through some of the things you need to be aware of, some of the scenarios you might be facing, and how to respond to these. This webinar compliments the Return to Operations – Manager’s Guide (HR) and is part of a ‘Returning to campus’ webinar series.
Book here
Monday 21 September: 3pm-3.50pm and Tuesday 6 October: 10am-10.50am
Webinar: Remote working: massage techniques to help with shoulder and neck pain
Are you struggling with aches and pains in your neck or shoulders? Join Joanne Jensen from Jensen Massage Therapy in this self-massage tutorial. Joanne will demonstrate massage techniques that are not only beneficial for pre-standing conditions like tension headaches and migraines, but that can also help you feel more relaxed! Ensure you have washed your hands, are wearing a vest or t-shirt and have some body lotion to hand before the session begins.
Book here
Thursday 1 October: 11am-11.50am
Webinar: Staying connected: Strategy and structures for social connectivity in the longer term
This session will consider the implications for staff in the coming months and consider what social connections will look like in the longer term. Discussions will include what will need to change in strategy and structure to ensure staff can make the most of the tools and techniques emerging from the pandemic. There will be an opportunity to assess what can be taken forward and what new approaches need to be put in place. Lawrie Phipps from JISC will be facilitating this event and sharing ideas from across the sector.
Book here
Wednesday 14 October: 10am-10.50am, Wednesday 4 November: 3pm-3.50pm and Tuesday 24 November: 10am-10.50am
Webinar: Staying healthy whilst working from home – practical advice and tips for you and your teams for staying healthy
Working from home is likely to be a different experience for many than working on campus. Less moving between buildings or between floors in buildings, and less trips to the photocopier! Whatever our situation, there’s potential for us to become more sedentary in the way that we are working. Finding ways to stretch, exercise and take regular screen breaks is important, as well as keeping healthy snacks to hand. This webinar lead by Tom Sherratt and Bharat Samra from the UoN Sports Team is packed of practical hints, tips and activities for keeping you and your team healthy whilst working from home.
Book here
Thursday 15 October: 10am-10.50am
Webinar: How to recruit remotely
International HR Specialist, Samantha Thorne will provide guidance and advice on how to recruit while working remotely. There will be information on the latest process and where to find tools and resources to support leaders and managers impacted by this new approach.
Book here
Monday 21 October: 11am-11.50am, Monday 16 November: 3pm-3.50pm and Thursday 17 December: 10am-10.50am
Webinar: Returning to campus: supporting the psychological health and well-being of your team
This webinar, led by colleagues from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, will focus on supporting the mental and physical health and well-being of your team as they return to working on campus. We’ll be considering the areas of rehabilitation and ergonomics as we adjust to phasing back over time. Thinking about stress issues over outputs/workloads/’presence’, future illness and how we respond individually and collectively.
Book here
Tuesday 22 October: 10am-10.50am
Webinar: Returning to campus: practical considerations when bringing your team members back to campus (H&S)
Keeping staff, students and our University community safe when back on campus is our highest priority. This webinar, led by Sarah Watson from the Health and Safety Team will provide you with an overview of what’s been happening on campus, including the preparation of buildings, signage, cleaning regimes etc. We’ll also be exploring the preparation you need to take prior to returning to campus, and the personal commitments you need to make.
Book here
Monday 9 November: 2pm-2.50pm
Webinar: Returning to campus: team engagement and cohesion
With some team members returning to campus – possibly not in their normal location, and others working from home, understanding how to support and manage a dispersed team is essential. This webinar, led by Carol Steed, will consider how to keep people connected and still feeling together as a team. There will be a focus on workload management, wellbeing, communication, morale, ways of working and managing changes to job roles/responsibilities sensitively. We’ll also think about individuals who have been furloughed and might feel ‘out of the loop’.
Book here
You can also register your interest for upcoming events. Find out more here [Moodle log in required].
Tags: advice, Staff training, support, Webinar
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Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s blog: Considerations for returning to campus
September 9th, 2020
In this week’s Recovery blog Deputy Vice-Chancellor Andy Long talks about changes to the University estate and offers a reminder on a number of different policies that have been introduced over the past few months aimed at keeping staff and students safe.
We are now just weeks away from the start of the new academic year and I am aware that many of you will be thinking about your return to campus, especially following the Vice-Chancellor’s blog last week.
Understandably, having been away for so long, the perception of risks associated with the prospect of returning to campus, the return of the student population and the start of teaching is a source of anxiety to some colleagues.
A Return to Campus familiarisation toolkit has been created to help ease concerns and enable staff to see safety measures prior to starting work. This includes previews of signage, videos of reopened buildings with health and safety measures in place, risk assessments, training and information on refamiliarisation tours.
For many months our campuses have been eerily quiet with the only occupants, aside from the geese and squirrels (and a rogue deer), being those working to maintain critical operations and services or carrying out essential research. Those critical works include the physical preparations needed to prepare our University to resume teaching and research safely.
As well as some of the measures outlined in the toolkit above, such as new signage, one way systems, hand washing stations and screens, you will also see some bigger physical changes to the estate.
This includes some changes to our road networks, enabling us to maintain social distancing in the busiest of spaces.
We will also be installing a number temporary hubs across University Park, Jubilee Campus, Sutton Bonington and Derby Medical School. These hubs will enable us to increase the amount of undercover space we have and give students a place to go in between face-to-face learning and on-campus activities. We are also repurposing some offices, where staff fall into the third phase of the Return to Campus plans, to increase available study spaces.
Good ventilation has been central to our building reopening and across the University we have increased ventilation rates in our buildings and isolated a number of systems to reduce the risk of COVID transmission.
At the same time, we will be keeping more windows open to help maintain fresh air flowing through the buildings. Our estates team will be increasing the heat to a number of buildings to allow for this but there may be times when you find some spaces cooler than normal.
Places to shop and eat on campus will also look a little different, with a number of catering facilities undergoing a phased reopening in line with Return to Campus plans, and some changes to processes around delivered catering to ensure that our health and safety measures are consistent.
As referred to in the Vice-Chancellor’s blog we will all need to get used to new ways of working. An example of this is how our Student Services arrangements will work, particularly during the busy Welcome period.
Though students will be able to get one-to-one support through a variety of means, including pre-booked appointments, the usual ‘walk-in’ service will not be available because of the implications of demand on social distancing measures.
To help colleagues across the university support students with general queries, an online resource detailing the most common requests dealt with by Student Services is now available and you can find out more about this provision here.
Finally we will all need to have a preparedness for members of our university community exhibiting symptoms or becoming ill with COVID-19. I will be sharing more details of our outbreak response plans and the expectations from all staff and students before the start of term.
Before I end this blog I wanted to draw your attention to a number of policies and procedures we have developed as a Recovery Board during the pandemic. The key policies are listed below but please do review the full set on the Recovery Sharepoint pages. I hope this serves as a reminder of new guidance that we all need to be aware of as well as being a record of information you can use to support colleagues. Please do read this and share where appropriate ahead of the start of the academic year. The pages also link to our Decision Record which outlines the approaches we’ve taken on topics such as returning our Vet School students early, extending teaching hours and holding online open days and events.
Best wishes
Professor Andy Long, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Health and Safety
- Covid-19 Return to operations’ Policy and Guidance
- H&S Covid-19 Face Coverings Policy
- Expanding teaching and research using 1m+ social distancing
- Covid-19 Cleaning Guidance
Education and Student Experience
- Teaching 20/21 Guiding Principles
- University of Nottingham Education and Student Experience Curriculum Delivery Plan
- Exceptional COVID-19 Limited Remote Study policy
- COVID-19 Community Pledge
- Guidance for Timetabling
- Guidance for Personal Tutoring, Support and Development
Processes to enable working from home or teaching preparation
- Grab & Go policy to allow staff to return briefly to campus
- Click & Collect – Loan of IT Equipment from KMC.
- Stay and Do Process for accessing campus facilities for teaching preparations
- Click & Collect – Libraries.
Estates
- Process for building re-opening
- Building reopening schedule
HR and People
- Return to Operations – Manager’s Guide
- Return to Campus Principles
- Working from Home guidance
- Familiarisation toolkit
Tags: deputy vice chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor's blog, recovery, return to campus, road networks
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Supporting our students through the Welcome period
September 9th, 2020
The Student Services team are putting a number of measures in place to ensure students and staff are well supported during the busy Welcome period.
Though students will be able to get one-to-one support through a variety of means, including pre-booked appointments, the usual ‘walk-in’ service will not be available at the start of session. It would be impossible to fulfill demand and adhere to social distancing and hygiene regulations.
Many students will find all the information they require is available via the Services for Students website, and should be encouraged to self-serve wherever possible. Those students who require further support will be able to submit a request via the online form on the website, or through new live chat functionality. Appointments are available for students who require one-to-one support, via Teams or face-to-face where appropriate.
To help colleagues support students with general queries, an online resource detailing the most common requests dealt with by Student Services is now available. .
Colleagues are encouraged to use this resource to signpost students to the information and support they require. This resource contains up-to-date information on the services available to students. This will be reviewed and added to before, during and after start of session activity, so colleagues have access to the latest information and can best support students. Colleagues can submit queries to be considered for inclusion at SS-Resolver-Team@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk.
In addition, the Internal Comms team have put together digital screens and social media posts directing to frequently used resources and answering some common questions. These will be displayed on central channels, and service providers and Education and Student Experience teams will receive copies to display on local channels. There are editable versions of these assets for messages that are local to particular schools, departments and service providers.
We recognise that sometimes colleagues will have a concern about a student (or a group of students) experiencing significant difficulties who requires urgent support. Please use this form to provide Student Services with information about these cases.
Student Services aim to provide a response within one working day but this will be only be possible if use is restricted to the most serious and urgent cases. In situations where the student’s difficulties are less serious or urgent they should be encouraged to seek support themselves via routes described above.
Tags: services for students, student services, Welcome
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Work begins on temporary hubs
September 8th, 2020
Work is beginning on number of temporary hubs to provide more undercover space on campus.
A number of temporary structures are being installed across University Park, Jubilee Campus, Sutton Bonington, Derby Medical School and Queens Medical Centre as part of health and safety measures.
The hubs will offer students alternative places to go in between face-to-face learning and on-campus activities. By increasing the amount of space available we can ensure students can adhere to social distancing guidelines, avoiding large numbers of people in any one area. The hubs will also offer an extension to catering facilities and act as overflow dining halls with some of them being bookable for specific activities.
Many of the hubs will have power points, a small amount of furniture- and access to WiFi. Like other buildings around campus there will be signs in the hubs advising users on health and safety measures, such as wearing face coverings, maintaining social distancing and hygiene practice.
Work to install the hubs will begin this week, with some disruption to car parking spaces- see below.
The hubs will be installed at the following locations:
University Park Campus
- George Green Quad
- Coates Road ( between L2 and L3)
- Trent East Car Park
- Portland Patio
- Mooch Patio
- School of Architecture Quad
- Dining Hall Extensions at Cripps, Rutland, Derby and Cavendish Halls
- There will also be temporary coverings at Willoughby and Hugh Stewart Bar and around the entrance to David Ross Sports Village.
Jubilee Campus
- Yang Fujia Car Park
Sutton Bonington
- Vet School
Derby Medical School
- Medical School Car Park
Queens Medical Centre
- Medical School Car Park, QMC
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Update to student policies
September 8th, 2020
The start of the new academic year sees some new policies and procedures come into effect and some changes to existing procedures.
The updates below came into effect on Monday 21 September 2020.
Policy on Proofreading
Students will often ask someone to proofread work for them before submitting, but there’s a fine line between proofreading and committing academic misconduct. This policy is applicable to all students and sets out what is acceptable for a proofreader to do, and what is not.
In some disciplines – and for particular assessments – it may not be appropriate for any proofreading to take place (e.g. where correct grammar is part of the assessment criteria).
Where it is inappropriate for a student to have their work reviewed, their school/department should make them aware of this in advance of undertaking the assessment.
Read the policy
Examination Self-Certification Policy
Although we are not currently running in-person examinations, this policy will apply to future exams which meet the criteria set out in the policy.
Sometimes students are unable to get to an exam and, for the same reason, cannot get to a doctor to obtain medical evidence in support of an Extenuating Circumstances claim. For this reason, the University is allowing self-certification of absence from examinations in some circumstances.
As this doesn’t apply to all assessments and because there are restrictions on its use, reading through the policy is advised.
Read the policy
Changes to the Academic Misconduct Policy and Procedure
It is important that all staff involved in the teaching, supervision and assessment of students understand how the University views matters of misconduct so that they are aware of the potential consequences. Some small but significant changes have been made to this policy and procedure, which are applicable to all students.
Forms of academic misconduct which are likely to result in more severe penalties have been identified and new guidance has been created on the application of penalties by schools and departments.
Read the Academic Misconduct policy and the Academic Misconduct procedure.
The policies will be published for students on Monday 21 September 2020.
Tags: Academic misconduct policy, examinations, Misconduct, policies, Policies and Procedures, Student policies
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Free mental health fitness masterclasses
September 8th, 2020
Fika are offering free access to their Mental Fitness Masterclasses from September to December 2020.
Fika is a customisable mental health improvement platform that works to develop the seven skills of mental fitness; confidence, positivity, focus, connection, meaning, motivation and stress management.
Each session will be run by Fika Head of Psychology Dr Fran Longstaff, and some sessions will feature expert guest speakers.
Sessions are scheduled for the following dates:
Tuesday 15 September – Introduction to Mental Fitness: 4-5pm
Tuesday 13 October – Connection: 4-5pm
Tuesday 10 November – Stress: 4-5pm
Tuesday 8 December – Meaning: 4-5pm
Sessions are accessed via the Fika app using the instructions below:
Tags: FIKA, good mental health, mental health, wellbeing
Posted in Announcements, News | 1 Comment »
New FM:Interact team demonstration sessions
September 8th, 2020
FM:Interact is a new campus space management system that replaces our existing Building Information System. The new system allows us all to view, manage and plan our space on campus better. FM:Interact can be accessed on any computer or mobile device and brings us many new features.
You can use FM:Interact to view and print up-to-date campus, building or floor plans. Room numbers, room types and departments are clearly displayed on these, including access facilities for disabled staff and students. Simply use the search box or interactive map to search and view the plans.
If you are an Operations Manager, Administrator, Surveyor, Timetabling Manager, Maintenance Manager or anyone else who works in space management, you will be assigned a specific role in FM:Interact:
- Previously you had to use various systems to view space occupancy details, access plans, room numbers etc. You can now view all this information in FM:Interact. Where it is required, some staff can mark up their own floorplans with notes, measurements etc.
- A number of space reports will soon be available in FM:Interact to support you in your role. Some staff will also be able to create bespoke reports as required.
- Where appropriate, you will be able to edit or request changes to information in the system.
- A useful scenario planning feature allows the Space Resource team to look at theoretical space modelling, and lists all the effects and actions that need to be considered for any future changes.
The version of FM:Interact we are using has been specifically developed for the Higher Education sector. This allows us to give more detail in our legislative reporting requirements and our annual Resource Allocations Model submission. FM:Interact will also be developed over the coming year to include further estates information and ensure it integrates seamlessly with other University systems.
To gain an understanding of the new system, why not join one of the upcoming Teams sessions to view a live demonstration of FM:Interact and ask any questions that you may have? Simply complete the registration form to select one of the following sessions:
- Tuesday 8 September, 1pm
- Thursday 10 September, 11am
- Tuesday 15 September, 11am
- Thursday 17 September, 1pm
- Tuesday 22 September, 11am
- Thursday 24 September, 1pm
- Tuesday 29 September, 11am
- Thursday 1 October, 1pm
The existing Building Information System links on webpages will be switched over to FM:Interact at the end of June. For further information view the FM:Interact Frequently Asked Questions or email spaceresource@nottingham.ac.uk.
Tags: Building Information Modelling, campus space management, Information Services, space management
Posted in Announcements, News, Opportunities | 2 Comments »
Applications for Leadership and Management Academy programmes – Final call
September 8th, 2020
There are just a few weeks to go before the closing date of Sunday 20 September for applications for Leadership and Management Academy programmes.
Your application will need line manager endorsement, so do leave time for this to be completed as well.
There has been a high level of applications, although some places still remain. Applications from staff with protected characteristics, such as BME, disabled and LGBT+ communities in academic, technical and professional services roles are especially encouraged.
Staff who are under-represented in their professional field or at their level e.g. for reasons such as gender are also encouraged to apply.
There are four programmes available:
- Executive Leadership (16 places) – 6 x half days (some places available)
- Senior Leadership (32 places) – 5 x half days (some places available)
- Operational Leadership (64 places) – 5 x half days (places available)
- Stepping into Leadership (64 places) – 3 x half days (almost full)
These programmes will all be delivered on-line, and include coaching, 360 assessments and a focus on the application of learning in practice.
If you would like any further information about these programmes, or if you wish to have a conversation about which programme might be right for you, please email the Leadership and Management Academy.
Tags: leadership, Leadership and Management Academy, leadership programmes, LMA, programmes, Staff training
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Vice-Chancellor’s Medal 2020 – Winners announced
September 4th, 2020
The exceptional achievements and service of staff and students have been recognised with this year’s annual award of the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Medal recognises those who have delivered the most exceptional achievement or made the most outstanding contribution to our University community.
For colleagues in faculty and professional services, the Medal recognises impact delivered through research; exceptional teaching for students; and service to Nottingham’s communities at home and across the globe.
For our students, the Medal recognises personal achievements and service to fellow students including contributions to life in halls; student societies and sporting clubs; representation of the student body; or volunteering in the community.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shearer West congratulated each of this year’s winners. She said:
“Across a particularly challenging year, it is extremely heartening to see so many colleagues’ and students’ exceptional contributions to our own community and those around us.
“This year’s winners represent every aspect of the quality, talent and commitment to be found at Nottingham – from research breakthroughs, to support for our students, to our response to the impact of the coronavirus.
“I am very proud of the achievements of all of our winners, who have now joined a prestigious cohort of students and staff whose achievements and service have been outstanding.”
A full list of recipients of the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal is available at VC Medal – Listing.
Recipients of the VC Medal at our China and Malaysia campuses is available at VC Medal – China and Malaysia – Listing.
Tags: VC Medal 2020, Vice Chancellor's Medal 2020, Vice-Chancellor's Medal
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