Blogs

This event was my most recent, and was really very interesting! Talking to young people who are making decisions about university and what lies ahead of them really makes you think make to your own decision.

It was interesting to see how many students knew exactly what it was they wanted to do compared to students who were obviously very confused about it all. This session was so helpful, as it allowed them to talk to people no matter what their decisions were and get advice from people who had already been through the system in a variety of ways.

I felt that this session actually helped me in a way as it made me think about the decisions that I had personally made on the way to university and I felt very reassured in my pathway, and what I want to do in the future.

The wide variety of students in different positions that I talked to were all so interested in what their options were and knew the questions they wanted to ask, and I felt that overall this session was greatI i defintely want to do one of these again if I can!

Greetings from Australia!

I have been here for a month and it was such a great decision to take part in Study Abroad programme. I was allowed to come to Australia a month before the semester started and I decided to take advantage of that. So on 11 August after 31 hours flight I landed in Australia. My first impressions? It was cold. Yes, I knew it was winter time but Australia always figured in my imagination as a land of sun. It was morning and it was not supposed to be. I've lost the track of the time on the plane already. Greetings from the flight attendants simply confuse you. Why do they say good morning when it should be night? - you keep asking yourself.

Australia is simply different. For me, interested in environment it is simply amazing to see all that wildlife around you. I wouldn't be myself if I didn't use my time before uni started to travel. We rented a car (me and my boyfriend, or de facto partner as he offically figures as in Australia) and drove 6000 km around Queensland. We slept in the car to keep it low budget and it was simply great! We have seen so many species of birds, kangaroos, platypus, huge butterflies, snakes and so much more!

We came back a bit over a week ago to move in to such a nice place with Australian housemates. Australians really enjoy their life and they are really demanding when it comes to housing. My expactations towards the room I live in during the term  are really low (probably because the prices in London are really high) and the place I live in is so great! I have my own balcony, tennis court, swimming pool and I live 10 minutes by bike (provided by my housemate) from Uni. At the University there is so much to do in your free time. But it's a topic for another entry. I just want to say that studying at Kingston gives you an opportunity to go for an exchange to University like Bond, which is private and have so many facilities that you can use. University that it is really difficult to enter and other students pay so much money for.

Financial side of studying is very important to me as I'm not getting any support from my family. I am not eligible for maintainance loan. Kingston University allowed me to come to Australia thanks to their bursary for low income students. Because of that I could pay or my flight and visa and be here in Australia. Without it, I couldn't simply afford it. I'm really greatful for that because Study Abroad is a great opportunity to enhance your CV, meet fantastic people and learn different approaches to your subjects.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

Took part in a Visit Us event today. About 27 Year eight (I think, Im still trying to figure out the school system here) boys came along to see what Uni is all about. I won't lie, I was a bit nervous, but I decided to give it a good go anyway. It turned out to be a lot of fun. The boys were on their best behaviour and seemed really interested in what was being said. They listened to a presentation from Sarah first and then another on Student Life from the ambassadors. I spoke a little on how much I love being in the Jitsu club, and told them about the Crime Scene House which is unique to my course. 

We then split the group up for a tour around campus. I loved my group, they were fascinated about EVERYTHING. We borrowed and returned a book in the library just so they could see how it worked. It took a bit of fast talking not to have to it several more times. The health centre and gym were not appreciated quite as much as the Student Bar for some reason. The boys also kindly tested the microphone in Clattern Lecture theatre, just to be sure it was working. I had to answer half a dozen questions on my course as well which I enjoyed. Before I knew it the session was over. 

I really enjoyed myself and look forward to doing something like that again.

My final day at inter professional practice placement (IPP)we finished with a presentation by my team ( myself, another student nurse and a occupational therapy student) I have spoken to placement and they are happy for me to discuss my placement, which was at Princess Alice Hospice, the place is so beautiful and the staff are all very caring and provided us with excellent support and advice throughout our placement. On the final day we had to to do a 15 minute presentation in front of staff at the hospice. I prepared the presentation with the team and arranged for hand outs for the staff watching the presentation, the subject was the on what we have learned throughout the training, how we first felt before starting and how we felt the placement went and how this placement will help us in the future. The IPP training provided us with daily lessons on variety of aspects of palliative care, while based on communicating within a multiple disciplinary team. I then met with the organiser and one of the medical consultant to discuss their reviews on how the staff felt l worked within the team, with the patients and how competent and professional l was as a student nurse, my results very excellent and l am very pleased with all aspect of this training and hope the hospice continues with offering IPP training in the future for more students to attend and experience working closely within a multidisclinpary team and other students from different healthcare careers . I would like to say a big thank you to Princess Alice Hospice staff for an amazing experiences :)

i have been chosen by one of my tutors to attend a special interprofessional practice placement (IPP), only 4 students have been chosen from our year to attend this placement, so l feel very lucky to be offered this special training.  The training involues a daily seminar on subjects related to the patients and lead by consultants, Nurses, ward managers, chaplin and therapies staff.  The training has been design to enable us to work within a multidisplinary team (MDT)and while teaching us to understand the roles of all healthcare workers, enabling us to work together as team and provide excellent care for all patients as well as there families and carers.

I have spent a day with the doctor at the hospital as a medic.  I joined in the MDT , then followed the doctor and nurse to visit the patients on the wards to assess them for palliative care.  All patients need to be assessed to obtain their health needs and assess what type of care they may need and in some cases they will be assessed for the hospice.

I also spent a day with the occupational therapist, assessing patients for equipement to enable them to retain their independancy, this experience was excellent and oped my eye to discover that the therapist have to have a wide knowledge of medical conditions to enable them to work with patient to provide quality of care.

at present l have 3 days left at this placement and on my final day l have to present do a presentation on our final day, myself another student nurse and a student occupational therapist.

place is so beautiful and staff are amazing and helpful and will miss the place when l go to new placement after easter holiday. 

Ambassdor Need your help: ambassdor Holly is looking into post colonial drama and considering the question 'demonstrate the significance of memory and history in post colonial theatre'. She would like to interview any ambassadors who  do not speak English as their first language. Email Holly via  holly.chapman@live.co.uk

Also ambassdors Bisi Olukanni is looking for help with her experiment to assess how people create perceptions and judgements based on the physical characteristics of each individual with whom you are presented. 

You will be presented with 8 images of male and female individuals twice on a computer screen, once with no statement and the second time with a statement.

You will then be required to rate on a scale of 1-9 (1 being very anti-social and 9 being very pro-social) on how you have perceived the individuals nature.

 This experiment will last approximately 15 minutes and once the experiment has terminated you will be provided with a debrief sheet which will explain the purpose of the experiment Email Bisi via k1027018@kingston.ac.uk

This was my first 'job' as an Ambassador for Kingston, so I was actually excited about it all! Well, maybe not the 8am start, but was looking forward to trying new things and building on my people skills.

Though my main role for the day was to assit with visitors and making sure that they were going to the right locations, I did how ever build some new skills. Such as being able to give campus tours, something that got me really nervous as talk to people I don't know ad making sure I cover all the key areas isn't something that is easy for me. 

Though after I had taken a couple round I got the feeling that I was doing a good job as visitors seemed pleased.

Overall the day was great fun, not like work at all. Fellow Ambassadors were great to be with and made loads of new friends. 

RAISE Conference 2012: First Call for Submissions

Please see below more information about the RAISE Conference, if you like to attend then please email struan.campbell@kingston.ac.uk 

You are invited to attend the Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) Conference on the 13th-14th September, 2012 in Southampton University, United Kingdom. On behalf of RAISE we invite you to submit contributions to this conference.

We particularly welcome submissions from students

Full details of the conference are available at:
http://raise-network.ning.com/page/conference-2012

Student Engagement as a shared agenda: people, places, practices.

Since our inaugural conference in 2011 Student Engagement (SE) has not been off the agenda. However SE is used to describe a host of issues and often in confusing ways!  The RAISE Conference offers an opportunity to develop shared meanings and a shared agenda to enhance SE for all students.

Out three sub-themes seek to cover a broad range of SE agendas and issues. Submissions may focus on one or more:

1. People: SE in relation to student expectations, identity, transitions, social networks, relationships, physical and mental health issues, disability, membership and belonging, particularly among groups less well represented in HE.
2. Places: SE in relation to places, spaces, environments and technological systems / resources which impact on and facilitate engagement.
3. Practices: Engaging students through academic, curricular (design), extra-curricular, student support and professional practices which promote an engaged stance in every student's learning journey. 

Contributions (deadline for submission is April 13th)

Presenters at the conference will gain a discounted rate to the conference fee (and student presenters will have a free place).

May be in form of:

• Papers  
• Workshops
• Symposia
• Posters

(see RAISE website for details)

RAISE Conference Organising Team

I worked at the PR open day last weekend and had such a brilliant time!

It was my first event as an SA so I was a bit nervous but my fellow SA's at the information booth were really friendly and supportive.

I had the opportunity to meet and talk to a lot of prospective students and tell them all about my time at Kingston so far which was great, and I even attended an economics taster session so I got to learn new things too.

Although it was tiring and very busing at the begining of the day and around lunch time, I thoroughly enjoyed my first event with KUSA and am looking forward to many more open days/taster events in the future.

I enjoyed my first two jobs on the SA as it gave me a chance to get to know my new colleagues and staff members. On the set up I was able to learn more about what will be required of me as a SA and what procedures take place when setting up for an open day.

The actual open day was very interesting as I was able to learn more about degree courses available at Kingston that I was not previously aware of. I had the chance to speak to prospective students and answer their questions about Law as a first year student