Our Procurement team, based in the Finance Department, helps the University meet its objectives and deliver the best results in the most cost-effective way.

The team can advise you on dealing with suppliers and sourcing the goods and services you need to do your job.

The team has a number of forms and templates available to help you.

Expenses paid as part of Kent business should be claimed for reimbursement as soon as possible. Petty cash must not be used to reimburse individual expenses.

The use of personal monies should be minimised where possible by the use of a University credit card or by arranging for the supplier to invoice Kent directly.

Information compliance

Data protection
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation came into force in May 2018 and replaced the Data Protection Act. Basic principles for looking after personal data remain the same, but there are stricter standards and the maximum penalty has increased to €20 million.

Each school or department will have one or more Information Custodians (ICs), who work with the Information Compliance team to improve protection of personal data in line with the GDPR.

All staff should complete a GDPR online training module.     

All members of staff should familiarise themselves with the following Information Compliance policies:

Data Protection Policy 

Data Breach Policy 

Data Rights Policy 

By following these policies and completing their mandatory training, staff will be better able to ensure the University complies with its legal obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018 and other associated legislation. 

The Information Compliance team is developing tools to help schools and departments with GDPR, including:

• Information Asset Register, to help identify, risk assess and monitor manual or electronic collections of personal data
• Handling a data breach
• Writing a privacy notice
• Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) guidance
• Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) template

Freedom of information

Records management

University constitution and management

The University of Kent is a self-governing autonomous institution set up by Royal Charter in 1965. The Charter sets out our overall constitution, with statutes and ordinances detailing how the University operates in practice.

Our key governing bodies are:

• the Council (and its sub-committees), which has overall responsibility for governance
• the Senate, overseeing our academic work
• the Executive Group (EG), responsible for day-to-day running of the University
• the Senior Leadership Forum, comprising senior managers  

Copyright is now an unavoidable and important aspect of university life, particularly now we work and study online. Copyright law puts restrictions on the use of creative works, but also allows for uses through the use of licences and copyright exceptions.

Our copyright support service will help you navigate your way through copyright law and help manage the risk of financial or reputational damage    

Our Financial Planning and Analysis Office supports schools and departments on issues relating to budgeting and financial planning. If you have a financial query, you should talk to your school/department financial administrator first.

We can help you learn more about:

• our Resource Allocation Model (RAM)
• financial planning, including Planning Round, budget setting, financial year-end and budget meetings
• plans for new taught programmes
• budget commentary
• agreed transfer of budget from one heading to another, or 'virements'
• training, for example, in RAM and Agresso. 

Our insurance protection includes:

• Travel & Personal Accident Insurance
• Commercial vehicle fleet  
  

We can also help with:

• claiming
• policy excess
• employers’ liability
• producing evidence.

The VAT team aims to give staff an overview and guidance on Value Added Tax (VAT). VAT is a complex area, especially for universities. 

Get in touch if you have a query not included in our guidance below.

Our risk and financial compliance team is helping to develop and implement the University’s risk management strategy. 

A Risk Management Working Party has been set up to consider reforms to the University’s Risk Management Process and make recommendations to the Executive Group. 

A Risk Champion Network has also been formed to disseminate good practice across our campuses.