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| The man who took 54 years to complete his BA degree: 'My daughter says I should do an MA now |
Almost 50 years after he began his studies in Canada, Arthur Ross took to the stage at the University of British Columbia (UBC) the other day where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.
71-year-old Arthur Ross is considered the 'slowest' student to graduate from the University of Vancouver. It took him 54 years to complete his BA degree and it is believed that this may be a world record.
He is likely to beat Guinness World Record holder Robert Cronin who completed his degree at 52. He entered Princeton University in 1948 for a degree in biology and graduated in 2000.
However, Arthur Ross says he is in no rush to claim the world record title. The real reward, he says, is the knowledge he gained at university.
Speaking to the BBC, he said, "I just wanted to learn because I was very curious." He says that the desire to learn is what inspired him to complete his degree after all these years.
Mr. Ross entered the University of British Columbia in 1969. It was the year America landed its first citizen on the moon and the famous band 'The Beatles was about to release their album 'Abbey Road'.
After leaving high school, he did not understand what to do next. Ross joined the theater club on campus and became obsessed with acting.
After only two years at the University of British Columbia, Ross wanted to change careers. He moved to Montreal where he began studying at the National Theater School.
There he must have completed his education after which he was given a certificate of performance. Ross then realized that he didn't really want to be an actor.
"I thought, 'Maybe I should go to law school and become a lawyer,'" he says.
Ross returned to the University of British Columbia and completed three years there, which was a requirement for admission to law school. He attended the University of Toronto Law School where he received his Juris Doctor degree.
He retired in 2016 after a successful career as an advocate spanning 35 years.
It was at this point that Ross decided he had to finish what he had started nearly five decades earlier. 'It was always in my mind that maybe one day I would go back to university and complete my degree.'
Ross kept his pace and focused on just one course at a time until graduation.
He began to focus on the subject of history after watching a 1909 German opera based on the First World War. It is not a waste of time if you read one thing at a time that interests you. An opportunity was presented to me and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
When Ross returned to the University of British Columbia after so many years, many things had changed, such as the campus had become larger and his university tuition fees were free due to his retirement.
Technology had also advanced so much that he could take some classes online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ross says that the experience left him deeply moved by the faculty and fellow students at the University of British Columbia, who remained engaged in their studies despite the hardships and disruptions of the global pandemic.
"It hurt them, but they showed their character and said, 'OK, we have to do things differently now,'" he says.
After working on his degree for six years, Ross took to the stage with great enthusiasm and accepted his success.
"I've been to all my kids' graduations," he says. Now it's his family's turn to celebrate with them.
When asked what he was planning to do next, Mr. Ross said he would not rush to make a decision but calmly.
My daughter says that now I should get a master's degree somewhere. But I want to be patient and see more. I am very happy to have come this far.