Home / Retirement / Advancing years no reason to stop furthering a tertiary education

The UK’s Open University set the benchmark for distance education in the 1960s, followed by other academic institutions globally, thereby opening up myriad opportunities for older students to study. Picking up a degree along the way is optional.

Many decades ago, my teaching career took a turn into the world of distance education. It proved productive, giving me the opportunity to work overseas and enjoy creating a variety of courses for study.

At the time, the leading institution in this form of education was The Open University in the UK, created in the 1960s with the aim of providing second-chance university courses for those who had missed out after completing their schooling.

The Open University set new standards of excellence in distance education, in terms of both the quality of its learning materials and the level of student support, becoming the acknowledged worldwide benchmark for excellence.

Most of its students classified as mature are relatively young (nearly 60 per cent are aged 25 to 45), but the university has attracted significant numbers of older enrolees over the years. In particular, its cohort of more than 200,000 students for 2021-22 included two per cent at undergraduate level and six per cent at post-graduate level of people aged 65 and over. Taking students aged 55 and over, these numbers jump to five per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

You can see where this is going. Age is no barrier to continuing your education, including higher education. The oldest Open University graduate was reported this year to be 95-year-old David Marjot, who completed a masters in modern European philosophy. While we’re at it, an internet search revealed the oldest graduating student as Virginia Hislop, who, at 105, received her degree in education from Stanford University. I should add, though, that the award was for studies completed about 80 years earlier, so perhaps this doesn’t count. On the American front, 89-year-old Mary Fasano does certainly count when she graduated from Harvard in 1997.

Looking at Australia, a point of comparison are the figures for Open Universities Australia (OUA), a consortium offering a range of courses from 25 universities. The list includes the University of Queensland and the University of New England, both of which have histories of involvement in distance education dating back many decades. In 2022, there were 767 Australians aged 60 and over enrolled in OUA, representing just over three per cent of total enrolments. The figure for those over 50 jumps to nearly 10 per cent.  

So, if you’re intellectually curious, go for it. Investigate what’s on offer, either through OUA or through your nearest university. Quite a few courses do not require previous qualifications, and some which do require them provide bridging studies to get you started.

“But I don’t want a degree, I just want to learn more about the French Revolution,” I hear you say. That is not a problem, as you can enrol in just the specific subjects that interest you. Research has shown that a high percentage of older enrolees do not complete a qualification simply because they don’t want one.

There is also the issue of how to study, whether online or in a face-to-face class. It’s understandable that some older persons are a little reluctant to join a class of fresh-faced undergraduates and prefer to study at home. Online learning has advanced rapidly in recent years and is now a part of most higher education courses.

You don’t need reminding of the benefits of learning with respect to maintaining and improving cognitive function, potentially protecting you from the ravages of decline and conditions such as dementia. Taking up university study can be rewarding and fun, providing structure to your efforts to pursue your curiosity in some facet of the world.