International staff – and their family members – who need to create an eVisa account should do this as soon as possible, to ensure there is time to resolve issues, should you experience any.  

If you do not create a UKVI eVisa account, you will have no way of proving your lawful right to enter the UK after 31 December 2024. *

What you need to do  

Anyone who uses a physical immigration document and who does not already have a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account will need to: 

• create a UKVI account at: https://www.gov.uk/get-access-evisa 
• Link your passport to your UKVI account: https://www.gov.uk/update-uk-visas-immigration-account-details  

Support available 

• People and Culture Website
• People and Culture SharePoint
• International Staff Support team: internationalstaff@qub.ac.uk

Further information, support and guidance is available at www.gov.uk/evisa

• won an award or is involved in charity work?
• overcome adversity or achieved sporting success while studying?
• secured an exciting graduate job or career placement, or who has their own business start-up idea? 

If so, please complete this form (this can be done for yourself or on behalf of someone else) and the Strategic Communications Directorate team will be in touch to discuss. 

This is a brand-new course, designed for all researchers and will:

• explain what is meant by research data;
• outline your funder requirements regarding data sharing;
• outline if your funder mandates that your data must be shared in a named repository;
• outline if there are timeframes for the sharing of your data.

It is essential to attend this course if you want to ensure you are compliant with your funder policy regarding data sharing.

Organiser: Student Experience Team, One Elmwood - Student Centre.

• To make a monetary donation, please visit: https://www.bankuet.co.uk/give/southbelfast-give-once
  Under 'Additional Information', select campaign code 2024 - Christmas - Queen's University Belfast at check out for the donation to be counted as part of the Queen's-wide campaign.
  
  You can donate on Bankuet up to Friday 20 December.
  
  
• To make a physical donation, collection points have been set up at:
  • One Elmwood (Staff Kitchen)
  • The Graduate School
  • Administration Building (Academic Affairs, Level 6)
  • School of Pharmacy (School Office)
  • Physical Education Centre (PEC)

The foodbank has indicated that they would particularly welcome donations of: tinned meat/fish, tinned vegetables, tinned fruit, coffee, milk (UHT or powdered), jams/honey/spreads, tinned spaghetti, biscuits, instant mash potato, toiletries - soap, shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste etc., toilet roll, and seasonal items.

You can donate to one of the collection points up to Friday 13 December.

More information

The South Belfast Foodbank have worked tirelessly for over 10 years, providing food, toiletries, and support to those in need in our local community. Those that have been referred are able to select their own food, toiletries, household and baby items from one of the two recently opened supermarket style centres. A 1:1 appointment with a trained volunteer is also provided to offer support and signpost to other avenues of help. Since opening in 2014, they have provided 492,795 meals to people in crisis. Your donation will support the South Belfast Foodbank to sustain this essential provision over the tough winter months ahead.

Last year, this collection raised a total of £1,560 was raised in monetary donations and 245.85kg donated in food and toiletries which were gratefully received by the South Belfast Foodbank, supporting approximately 40 families for one week.

Find out more about the South Belfast Foodbank

Find out more about Bankuet

2. Invoices received after 5.00pm on Tuesday 10 December and Requests for Payment or Staff Expenses Claims received after 12.00pm Wednesday 11 December 2024 and before 12.00pm on Thursday 2 January 2025 will be paid by Friday 10 January 2025.
3. Normal payment arrangements will apply for all payment requests received week commencing Monday 6 January 2025.

Whilst Accounts Payable will make every effort to comply with this timetable, due to the volumes of payment requests received at this time of the year, and to ensure payment before the holiday, staff are requested to process all such transactions well in advance of these deadlines.

Further clarification of these arrangements, if required, may be obtained from Accounts Payable by emailing: accounts.payable@qub.ac.uk.

Nightingale Holistic Therapies' goal is to provide quality, affordable massage to staff, with an aim to help destress and rejuvenate during the working day. Treatments are available at a discounted price for staff.

Please contact the supplier directly with any queries: moyahcunningham@hotmail.co.uk

This year, the event will support the QUB Porters Toy Appeal. Donations during the event are greatly appreciated.

Alternatively, staff can drop off canned or non-perishable food items at the collection point in the main foyer.

Action Required

• Existing Assignments (Not Yet Published): Existing assignments set up with Turnitin LTI 1.1 and not yet been published should be updated to use the CPF as soon as possible.
• New Assignments: Use the CPF (Canvas Plagiarism Framework) for all new assignments.

The CPF offers a more efficient and integrated experience. This change is necessary as Turnitin LTI 1.1 is no longer supported and has several limitations.

For guidance and resources, visit:

• Transitioning to the Canvas Plagiarism Framework
• Turnitin in Canvas is Changing
• Full guidance on CPF for staff

Staff requiring support can contact the team via the 'Help' menu in Canvas.

• Queen’s and Ulster University honour US Special Envoy Joe Kennedy III at honorary degree ceremony 
• Global Innovation Summit 2024 Takes Off: A Stellar Start at Queen’s University Belfast
• Queen’s celebrates European Week for Waste Reduction with a vibrant line-up of sustainability events 

• Research Workshop: Does Counter-Terrorism Work?, Wednesday 11 December, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, Mitchell Institute Fellows’ Room, 18 University Square
• Lecture: Restoring Justice and Demanding Accountability: Reflections from Guantanamo and Beyond, 12 December, 5.00pm to 6.30pm, The Moot Court, School of Law, QUB
• Conference: Philosophy in Schools Now!: Empowering Young Minds in Northern Ireland, 14 January, 9.30am to 4.00pm, Riddel Hall, 185 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5EE

Cluster ‘top-down’ calls address global challenges and are structured in the following six categories:

1. Health
2. Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
3. Civil Security for Society
4. Digital, Industry and Space
5. Climate, Energy and Mobility
6. Food, Bioeconomy, Natural resources, Agriculture and Environment

Since its inception in 1968, the QFT has occupied a unique place in the cultural and entertainment life of Northern Ireland. This uniqueness comes from the QFT's special atmosphere, its screenings of carefully curated new and classic films, its loyal members and audiences and from the many people who have worked front of house and behind the scenes.

Today the QFT is a vibrant and modern cinema that welcomes 100,000 people through its door every year.

• Planning my Career Development
• Line Manager Skills to Support Staff
• Italian for absolute beginners
• SAS Essential Training: 1 Descriptive Analysis for Healthcare Research

• Introduction to Database Part 2 (covers ICDL DB): Tuesday 3 December 9.30am to 12:30pm 
• Introduction to Microsoft Visio: Monday 9 December, 2.00pm to 3.00pm
• AI Lunchtime Bytes: Foundations – Getting Started with your AI Journey: Thursday 12 December, 1.00pm to 2.00pm

To register your interest

Staff submitting an expression of interest should include detailed bullet points indicating how they would meet the criteria outlined in the Award guidelines. These should be sufficiently detailed and include information on the type of evidence you can provide to support your claims, to allow the internal selection panel to make an informed decision. The Expression of Interest should also include a brief opening paragraph setting out what you do that is new or different to the discipline/University.

More information

In 2025, for the NTFS the University can nominate up to three individual members of staff who teach and/or support learning in higher education. The NTFS 2025 Guidance document provides details about the Scheme and the criteria.

The CATE recognises and celebrates collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning. The University can nominate one team that can clearly demonstrate its impact on teaching and learning through collaboration. The CATE 2025 Guidance provides details about the Scheme and the criteria.

Further information is available on the CED website. Queries can be directed to e.mcdowell@qub.ac.uk.

EVENT: Embedding AI in Higher Education: Innovation, integration, and impact at Queen’s

Jisc and Queen’s are hosting an event on 5 February 2025 as part of Jisc’s ‘Demonstrating Digital Transformation’ series. This event will highlight Queen’s role in piloting Jisc’s digital transformation framework and will feature lectures, workshops, interactive demos, and discussions. Join the event to explore the latest AI innovations at Queen’s.

Please register here.

ONLINE Training: ‘AI in Education: Leveraging ChatGPT for Teaching’ 

Want to incorporate more AI into your teaching practices? This self-paced course, by Ethan Mollick. explores key AI concepts and strategies for integrating AI in teaching and assessment. 

Please register here. 

AI Self-help Guides

The AI Self-Help Guides are here to support your journey into AI.

• Using AI to Save Time is designed to help both staff and students use AI to become more efficient in everyday tasks such as writing emails, generating ideas, revision and tutoring, data analysis, visualisation, and more.
• Understanding the impact of AI on my assessment has been developed to offer academic staff a practical and efficient way to assess the potential impact of AI on their assessments.

Find more AI guides and resources on the AI Hub. 

A Canvas training video catalogue has been created for staff to access on a self-service basis. Whether you need a refresher or want to learn something new, explore our range of short, on-demand training videos covering Canvas Fundamentals, assignment setup, Turnitin, and more. Check out the Training Catalogue on the DigiHub today.

One-to-one Consultations 

Book a 30-minute virtual session with a Digital Learning Developer from your Faculty, School or VLE Pedagogy Support Team (subject to availability). 

If you would like more information, please email Stephanie at: (scrawford29@qub.ac.uk)