Fife man collects degree 40 years after starting studies

A Fife man has graduated from the Open University 40 years after he began.

Simon Weller, 75, of Kemback, near Cupar, has decided that four decades of study has been quite enough.

Simon was one of 250 Open University students who graduated at a ceremony in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

He first started studying with the OU in 1975 just six years after the university was founded going on to achieve a Bachelor of Arts Open degree in 1977.

A former art teacher, he returned to study in 1998, completing his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Humanities last year. “When I started doing a maths foundation course, the print-out came on punched tape,” he said.

“The OU and computing have grown up together, and studying between 1975 and 2014 has changed amazingly.

“The amount of stuff you can get online and the way you can send in your assignments, communicate with other students and with the tutor and so on, that’s been quite a plus.

“I’ve been studying for 40 years it’s been part of my life for a long time and it’s an achievement, a genuine achievement.”