By Andrew Argo, education reporter

AN 82-YEAR-OLD Broughty Ferry man has received an Open University degree—nearly 30 years after stopping his course for a break.

Stan Miller never got round to resuming studies for his BA award and thought his chance of academic success had passed by.

Last year the Open University changed its rules and introduced non-honours degrees for students who had amassed 300 points under its credits system.

This made Mr Miller eligible for a degree, and the former health board administrator was delighted to accept the offer.

Mr Miller said, “I started with the Open University the year it began in 1971 and did five years of my course in the arts, humanities and social sciences.”

“I needed to do just another year for my degree but I decided to stop for a break. I intended to start again but I put it off and I never got round to it.

“As the years passed I gave up on the idea and thought through my own fault that my chance had gone.

“Then in November I received a letter from the university explaining they had recalculated the way they award degrees and that I could get a degree for the five years I had put in back in the 1970s. I was surprised and a bit amused but I said yes, I would take it.

“I regretted never making more of my education when I was young, and I’m very pleased that I’ve now got a degree.”

Stan has no ambition to continue studying and does not intend to travel to the university’s graduation ceremony in Glasgow later this month.

The bachelor attended Clepington Primary and Stobswell Secondary Schools, leaving at the age of 15 to work as an office boy with Low & Bonar in King Street.

Excused from armed service during the second world war for health reasons, he later moved to the health board as a clerical officer and was a member of the administrative staff at the limb fitting centre, firstly at Milton of Craigie and later in Broughty Ferry.

A spokeswoman for the Open University confirmed Mr Miller’s award, explaining, “We used to have a policy where all students had to collect 360 points for an honours degree.

“Last year, in keeping with trends within higher education throughout the country, we changed our policy to offer a non-honours degree to our students who had collected 300 points.

“This brought Mr Miller and many other people into the area of being entitled to a degree, and we are very pleased to be making this offer to them.”

Stan is one of 1200 people receiving under- and post- graduate degrees from the Open University in Scotland this year.

They also include Karen Marjoram, quality assurance and training officer at the Scottish Fingerprint Service’s Dundee Bureau who is from Glenrothes in Fife. As a result of her BSc degree, she has been promoted and now has responsibility for training new staff.

Karen believes her OU studies identified her as a suitable case for promotion, saying, “I do think it helped to have a degree. The perception within the police force is that to get promoted you should be developing yourself.”

She studied a mix of science and social science courses, while juggling bringing up two young children and her full-time job. But she set herself the target of graduating before her 40th birthday—which is still two years off.