Tom Ball, Sunday February 04 2024, 9.00pm GMT, The Times
By the time David Marjot was entering retirement, most of his fellow students had yet to be born.
After thirty years of drawing his pension, the former psychiatrist, 95, decided to go back to university to study for a master’s in modern European philosophy.
Last week, alongside students 70 years his junior, Marjot, from Weybridge in Surrey, collected his degree certificate from Kingston University and in doing so became the university’s oldest graduate.
Accompanied by his son and son-in-law, Marjot received a standing ovation from his peers as he crossed the stage to be awarded his degree by the university’s provost. “I think it is important to always keep challenging yourself even as you get older,” he said of the one-year course, adding that it was “hard work” on account of his memory not being as good as it was.
He is thought to be one of Britain’s oldest graduates behind Archie White, a retired solicitor, who in 2021 received a degree in fine art at the age of 96 from the University of Brighton.
Marjot, a former psychiatrist with the Royal Navy and later the NHS, received his first degree in medicine in 1952. However, it was the death of his wife that prompted his return to higher education, explaining that the course “was a wonderful way of passing time when you spend most of your time alone”.
He now intends to write a book about psychiatry for which his philosophical studies around the delineation of the body and mind will prove useful. “I knew I was limited on time, so when I saw an advert for the course in The Times Literary Supplement for a course that was local to me, so I decided to apply,” he said. “It is a bit of a gamble, but the main thing is if you’re interested then go for it.”
He is now contemplating a part-time doctorate, which could take him until he is 102 to complete.
Professor Stella Sandford, who taught Marjot and was his dissertation supervisor, said: “David came to Kingston having already had an illustrious career and he brought a wealth of knowledge and experience with him into class discussions.
“We know that diversity in the classroom makes for richer and more interesting discussions, and we mustn’t forget that this includes generational diversity. David once told the class about his childhood experience of Empire Day 1938 and compared it to Remembrance Sunday 2022.
“He was able to connect all that up to what we were studying. It was an amazing and very moving contribution to the class.”
[에듀인사이드=한현석 특파원]
