The group created The First 500 Fund that aims to support the First 500 Scholarship. This award helps today’s Kent students to have the same opportunities enjoyed by the First 500 – a university experience free of financial worry – and will provide a lasting record of the contribution of Kent’s founding students.
The First 500 were Kent's first undergraduate students; they joined the brand new University of Kent at Canterbury in October 1965, when the campus had only a handful of buildings and just one college (Eliot). Half moved over to the newly-established Rutherford College in October 1966. The First 500 meet for an annual dinner in May, organised and hosted by John Platt (Rutherford 1965, Economics).