THROUGH YOUR LEGACY.
It is unlikely any of this would have happened without the kind legacy gift that allows the Bolt Scholarship to exist.
Michael MillsFormer Christine and Ian Bolt Scholar, now lecturer at the University of Kent
From our earliest days in 1965 to our most recent endeavours, the University of Kent has benefitted from close and important partnerships with philanthropists. Our remarkable community has enabled generations of young people – from a wide variety of backgrounds – to transform their lives and realise their potential.
We have a long tradition of philanthropy at Kent, and a gift in your will is an opportunity to create a personal and truly lasting legacy. Every day we are transforming lives through the power of education and, through our world-leading research answering some of life’s biggest questions. A gift in your will could play a part in the continuing search for knowledge, discovery and wonder.
As Vice-Chancellor at Kent, I am grateful to everyone who is able to consider leaving a legacy to our institution. When the time is right for you to make or change your will, I sincerely hope this brochure will help you make the decisions that feel right for you and your family.
Professor Karen Cox Vice-Chancellor
If you would like to have an informal discussion about the options available to you, or if you would like to notify us of your intention to remember Kent in your will, please contact giving@kent.ac.uk
Giving to scholarships can provide transformational help to some students who otherwise may not be able to embark on studies at undergraduate or postgraduate level at university. Creating a legacy to support scholarships ensures that an area of study you are passionate about can be continued or expanded upon. Scholarships allow a legacy to be used, in your name, to further your chosen area of work at the University, which can provide life-changing experiences for those who need financial assistance to pursue their course of study.
The Stella Dick Scholarship funds two scholarships a year, supporting mature students to study for an undergraduate degree.
Stella was passionate about education throughout her life, accessing higher education as a mature student herself and then working in secondary schools at senior levels throughout her career. She was a keen traveller and remained curious in life, establishing a retirement association in her local area. Stella was eager to ensure people could access higher education beyond the traditional route and her generous legacy gift to the University now offers two scholarships each year to support mature students on one of our many undergraduate programmes.
“I had long wanted to challenge myself, and the Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics degree at Kent had been on my radar for a long time. I would have needed to have a job throughout my studies were it not for the scholarship, which would have made things so much more difficult for me. The scholarship means that I am not relying on my husband so much for support and instead of working one or two jobs I can solely focus on my studies.
The course was challenging at first, however I’ve now settled in and am really enjoying studying. I made a deal with myself to take everything a day at a time. I’d always felt university was out of my reach when I was younger, so I don’t want to miss a thing.”
I’d always felt university was out of my reach when I was younger, so I don’t want to miss a thing
Becky Long Stella Dick Scholar
The Christine and Ian Bolt Scholarship provides postgraduate students with the opportunity to undertake research in the United States.
The Christine and Ian Bolt Scholarship was established by the late Ian Bolt in memory of his late wife, Professor Christine Bolt. Christine was a prominent senior figure at the University in the School of History from its early days in 1966, specialising in American Studies. She went on to become Pro Vice-Chancellor and was the first woman to hold this senior position at the University. Ian wished to honour Christine by establishing a scholarship in her memory, providing students with the opportunity to undertake research in the UK to further their postgraduate studies. Sadly, Ian passed away in 2008, leaving a generous gift in his will to the Scholarship Fund. To date, the Fund has supported over 30 students with their unique research and helped many careers to blossom.
Maria Hayward – Trustee of the Christine and Ian Bolt Scholarship
“The University of Kent brought out the best in Ian and Christine’s shared love of America, with US culture and politics embedded in Christine’s research and Ian’s fascination with the country and its people. The University only enhanced this interest, inspiring new ways of seeing America.
Being a Trustee has been a great privilege and a great joy. It has been inspiring to hear about the research of the Bolt scholars and how the funding has helped them to go to America.
Christine inspired my love of history and I hope that the students who benefit from the Fund are able to follow their dreams too. I really believe that there is nothing better than working in an archive and the Bolt Scholarship provides that opportunity.”
“Ian felt a strong connection with the University of Kent and was immensely proud of his wife, Christine Bolt, and her academic achievements.
Ian was an investor. Given his interest in higher education as well, it seemed appropriate to invest in highly achieving young academics. Indeed, he was excited about doing it and it was one of the first things he told me about when we met.
Initially, I was intimidated by being a Trustee for the Bolt Fund so soon after Ian died unexpectedly, having only just set it up. But I can honestly say that my last 15 years in the role have been so satisfying and such a joyful experience. I have always felt heard and understood regarding the wishes expressed for the legacy. The Legacy Team has consistently played a very significant part in making sure this happens and that the true spirit in which the legacy was gifted is reflected in the way the Scholarship Fund is used.
It continues to mean a great deal to me to know that I am supporting the wishes of Ian, the University of Kent and its students. I would say to anyone considering making a legacy pledge ‘Just do it!’ It is so worthwhile.
“It’s hard to overstate the impact that receiving the Bolt Scholarship had on me and on my career. Coming from a working-class background, I was the first person in my immediate family to study at university and the Scholarship opened up a lot of doors, utterly transforming the research I was able to do in my Criminology PhD.
My project was focussed on the subculture of ‘doomsday’ prepping in the USA, meaning I was geographically detached from my topic of study. Receiving the Christine and Ian Bolt Scholarship meant I had the means to go and study prepping first-hand, meaningfully contributing to social scientific understandings of this culture.
I finished my undergraduate Criminology and Sociology BA at Kent knowing I wanted to continue studying the topic, with the long-term aim of using postgraduate study as a springboard into a career related to criminology.
I graduated with my PhD in July 2017 and have since been working as a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent. In that time, I’ve published several articles based on my PhD research and I’m currently writing a book based on that work (and my other research since). It is unlikely any of this would have happened without the kind legacy gift that allows the Bolt Scholarship to exist.”
“I chose to study for my BA (Hons) in English and American Literature at Kent partly because of its proximity to my home in Essex and its easy access to London, but it was the contemporary, interdisciplinary and international content of the course – which was quite unusual at the time – that really drew me in.
Studying at Kent inspired me to go on to complete an MA in Twentieth Century English, followed by a PhD in English and Art History, following similar interdisciplinary lines. This would not have happened if I hadn’t gone to Kent. Nor would I have spent the next 30 years working in higher education. I am now working as a full-time artist, but I doubt if I would be the person I am today without those first tentative steps into academia.
I am particularly keen that my legacy will help to continue the study of Arts and Humanities subjects. Making this possible at my first university would make me immensely proud. I want to enable those who might never have considered doing higher degrees to consider that option. Higher education is an opportunity to help and nurture those with talent, regardless of race, gender, class or privilege, and to bring positive change to society. It is great to feel that I can continue to be a part of that long into the future.”
Higher education is an opportunity to help and nurture those with talent, regardless of race, gender, class or privilege and to bring positive change to society.
Ainsley de Silva – legacy pledger
“I grew up in a North Kensington Tower block, but my mum gave me a head start in Maths from when I was about five years old, so I was always going to go to university. Although retaking A levels and experiencing other challenges of life meant I started later than most, at 22 years of age. That upbringing and my own struggles is why I would like to ensure future Kent students with socioeconomic challenges have a safety net.
I found studying Pure Maths at Kent to be a calming educational refuge from the capital, where I had grown up. As someone who works in technology, now has an MBA and is considering studying for a Doctorate I really understand the life-changing impact of education.
Now approaching 60 years old, I believe we were a very privileged generation when it came to education, most of us avoiding student loans. So those of us who were lucky, exceeded our career expectations or who may be inheriting to become reasonably financially secure can really help those studying in the future to play their own part in building better societies and making a real change. Whether you give 1% or much more, it will cumulatively make a positive impact to the social, career, voluntary and other communities that future Kent graduates will collectively contribute to, improve and help build.
The Legacy Team helped us to get the correct wording for wills, as well as giving us great reassurance about how our legacy would benefit students at Kent in the future. It is a reassuring thing to think that help for others is what you are leaving behind.”
It is a reassuring thing to think that help for others is what you are leaving behind.
As well as supporting individual students in their programmes of study, legacies can be used to fund oneoff expenses, extra-curricular activities or to support the acquisition and restoration of archive collections relevant to the University’s work and ongoing research. Indeed, archives and collections themselves can also be a form of legacy that you may consider gifting to the University. This will ensure that items are kept together and documents or images can be studied by the students of the future.
We would be delighted to speak to anyone who is considering a legacy in this form, whether they are an archivist, collector or someone who simply has important manuscripts and collections of their own creative work.
Barry Wright, an alumnus of the University of Kent, who completed a Diploma in Christian Theology and Ministry as a mature student, remembered the University of Kent through his will. As a supporter of the Music Department and the Kent Opportunity Fund during his lifetime, his legacy gift followed. Since receiving his kind legacy gift in 2020, the Fund has supported University of Kent students in hardship and postgraduate studies through the Kent Opportunity Fund and helped students following extra-curricular music endeavours through the Music Department.
One student who benefitted from the support of the Barry Wright Legacy Fund, Rachel Wennermark, was a student from Virginia in the US who was studying in the School of English at Kent for a term as an overseas student. A talented woodwind musician, she was unable to bring her instruments with her and was soon missing playing so approached the Music Department about hiring instruments at her own cost. Fortunately, the Music Department was able to use the Barry Wright legacy to hire both an oboe and a cor anglais for her, so that she could participate in extra-curricular music alongside her course of studies.
During her time at Kent, Rachel played in the Symphony Orchestra and String Sinfonia, attending weekly rehearsals throughout her term at Kent, and played in two concerts as part of the Colyer-Fergusson Building Anniversary Weekend in December 2022.
Max Tyler was the archivist for the British Music Hall Society (between 1984-2012) and later also became its historian (between 1993-2016). After his passing in January 2018, Max’s collection was transferred to the Special Collections and Archives here at the University in June 2018. He had liaised with the University over a decade before this, to arrange to transfer ownership of the collection after his death, along with its relocation from the British Music Hall Society.
Max wrote regularly for The Stage newspaper and The Call Boy – the magazine of the British Music Hall Society. He was also co-editor of Music Hall Studies after the British Music Hall Society’s own large archive of theatrical memorabilia, but he also built up
personal collection of books, magazines, ephemera, research notes and audio-visual recordings relating to the British Music Hall tradition that make up this legacy.
The Max Tyler Music Hall Collection contains material spanning from the late 19th to the early 21st century and includes original song sheets, scripts for musical comedies, music hall programmes, playbills and research notes. Much of this material is used regularly by researchers and staff today, for study and to create new work that uses the material that Max Tyler diligently compiled.
Here are some brief guidance notes on the types of bequests, along with some suggested legal wording.
We strongly recommend that you seek professional advice from a qualified legal or financial practitioner before completing this process.
A residuary gift is a way of passing on what remains of your estate (the total value of all property and assets), once all gifts to loved ones have been made. You can leave the residue or a share of it to the University.
A pecuniary gift is a set amount of money, large or small. It is worth noting that the value of this type of legacy may decrease, as the cost of living rises over time.
A specific gift is a particular item and is a good way to pass on cherished belongings to loved ones.
Below are some examples of legal wording. If you show these clauses to your solicitor, it can help in drawing up your will.
‘I give to the University of Kent, The Registry, Canterbury, CT2 7NZ, UK, HMRC number XN5452, (enter the word ‘all’ or fractional share) the residue of my estate for its general charitable purposes and I further direct that the receipt of the University
Any gift that you choose to leave to the University of Kent will have an impact but by leaving a residuary legacy you’ll ensure that your loved ones will be taken care of first. As a percentage, rather than a set amount, your gift will remain proportional to the value of your estate, regardless of inflation.
If you already have a will and wish to add the University of Kent as one of your beneficiaries, a solicitor will be able to help you draw up a codicil.
When leaving a gift to the University, please make sure that your solicitor uses our full name, address and HMRC number in your will: The University of Kent, The Registry, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ / HMRC number XN5452.
If you would like to have a confidential and informal discussion about leaving a gift in your will to the University of Kent, or if you would like to notify us of your intention to do so, please contact the Legacy Team at giving@kent.ac.uk or on 01227 823588.
Thank you for considering remembering the University of Kent in your will.
Treasurer or other proper officer of the University for the time being shall be a full and sufficient discharge to my executors for the said legacy.’
‘I give to the University of Kent, The Registry, Canterbury, CT2 7NZ, UK, HMRC number XN5452, free of all tax the sum of £ (or the specific items to be given, as the case may be) for its general charitable purposes and I further direct that the receipt of the University Treasurer or other proper officer of the University for the time being shall be a full and sufficient discharge to my executors for the said legacy.’
Exempt status The University of Kent was established by Royal Charter in 1965 and is an exempt charity within the meaning of the Charities Act 1993.
