Graduation 36 Years On

Thirty-six years on since my first graduation, I graduated again yesterday (Monday, 20 January 2020) with an MSc. in Voluntary Sector Management from City University of London.

It was a wonderful day, meeting friends from the two-year course and my favourite tutors and lecturers - and it brought the memories flooding back.

In 1983, as a fresh-faced youngster (pictured below), I received a Pass Degree in Physics Studies at Hull University.

Later in life, my daughters used to tease me about my lowly degree, and they were right to do so.

I didn't apply myself at Hull University and, in truth, had little interest in Physics as a subject.

My varsity life was devoted to running the students' newspaper, DJ-ing and putting on stage lighting shows for visiting pop bands.

However, I remember how great a fuss my mum and dad made of me when I graduated.

At great expense, they and my three brothers all travelled up from Poole, Dorset to see me collect my BSc.

We spent the days before eating and drinking in the Berni Inn (a great '80s institution).

And my graduation day 36 years ago was a most happy one, despite my desperate dash across town on my Rudge Pathfinder bicycle to get there on time, my gown - or Batman cape as I called it - fluttering in my wake.

Yesterday's "Degree Congregation" had a surprising amount in common with its ancient predecessor.

My brother Nic was there again, accompanying my partner Laura as my guests (you were only allowed two). 

There was a great atmosphere at the Barbican Centre (which, it occurred to me I had previously visited 20 years before to interview the Godfather of Soul James Brown); we legged it across town (this time from Farringdon Station) to get there on time, and I hugely enjoyed seeing my university friends again.

The academic hood was different this time - the crimson and gold of a Master had usurped the black and white of a Bachelor - but the main change was in me.

For the first time, I had worked hard academically, putting more than 2,200 hours into the City course - and been rewarded with a Distinction, as well as a lot of vocationally useful knowledge.

From 1980-83, I was a very occasional visitor to Hull University's Physics Department. I was more likely to be found editing copy in the students' union newspaper office, or rigging up theatre lamps or flogging my own magazines on the campus.

By night, I would be at the decks of student discos or propping up the bar at any number of possible hostelries.

How strange that I should have managed, from 2017-19, to put in three hours a day of work, seven days a week, and remain teetotal. I loved spending time in the City University libraries, poring over the books, hoovering up the knowledge.

So later in life, I felt the need to prove myself, to better myself, to be a different person.

Still, it was tough being a Post-Graduate Student at City, while working full-time for a charity.

My week was at least 60 hours, sometimes more.

The Voluntary Sector Management course was also demanding, covering every aspect of charity management and accountancy, most of it outside my comfort zone.

That I managed to achieve 11 distinctions and two merits, in the 13 assignments or exams, still amazes me. I was going back to school and surprised myself.

On the other hand, from my first degree I can hardly remember any Physics - only funny things that happened to me doing discos or starting out in student journalism.

I found a contact sheet of photographs that I took outside Hull City Hall on that day 36 years ago.

There am I with fellow students whose names I no longer recall.

There, too, are my three dear brothers and my parents, Robin and Heide, who are, sadly, now gone and who would have loved to see me graduate again.

Back to School

It is some 33 years since I last did any academic study but, suddenly, I am a student again!

A strange feeling. From 1980-83, I was an undergraduate at the University of Hull where I was reading, or rather ignoring, Physics Studies.

A disastrous student, lazy, inattentive, uninterested, I crashed through my three years at Hull, ducking out of lectures and avoiding other contact with my tutors. It was a miracle I emerged a BSc. at all, and it was by the skin of my teeth.

I spent my time at Hull University pursuing a raft of extracurricular interests: cycling and climbing in my first year, then DJing, doing lighting for rock bands, student journalism, and, of course, drinking and seeking the company of women (not very successfully).

My undergraduate years passed in a haze, a blaze and a blur. My postgraduate year of Journalism Studies at University College, Cardiff, was not hugely different.

I tried a bit harder but could not concentrate, spent my time listening to jazz bands, dancing in reggae clubs, with all that that entailed, and drinking. I flunked my local government exam, before, eventually, getting a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism Studies.

Now in a different epoch I am back in the corridors of academia, studying a Master's (MSc.) in Voluntary Sector Management at a prestigious University of London business school.

Since the course officially started on 6 October, I have somehow put in around 65 hours of private study - averaging more than 20 hours a week.

I'm part-time but 20-plus hours' study a week is vastly more than I ever did when I was full-time in Hull or Cardiff back in the day.

Zero hours of private study would have been close to the mark then.

Admittedly, it has not been easy. I am working full-time as well, so I study while commuting morn and night, and at lunchtime, and at weekends.

I have never written essays before or used references, critical thinking or reflective practice. I am brand new! I am trying my best but I do get tired.

My first assignment is due in on 1 November, the second on 8 November, swiftly followed by another intensive weekend of lectures on campus.

My current assignment is an historical one, set by a history don. A baptism of fire for an ancient physicist!