'Better late than never' and 'It is never too late to chase your dreams.' As common and cliche as these quotes might sound, they can be really difficult to execute in real life. However, that's not the case for Dr. Nick Axeton.
Dr. Nick Axeton, a 76-year-old man from Wales, Somerset in the United Kingdom recently received his Ph.D. after 52 years after beginning the course.
Dr. Axeton started his undergraduate degree in 1967 in Leeds. He was a young individual who wanted to study psychology and sociology as he wanted to understand people. He was offered a Fulbright scholarship and enrolled for his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh in the US in 1970.
He had begun his thesis on mathematical sociology at the University of Pittsburgh in 1970. However, he returned to the United Kingdom five years after he started working on his thesis with his degree unfinished.
However, that didn't stop Dr. Axten from learning. He enrolled in an MA programme in Philosophy at the University of Bristol in 1969. He then went to receive his doctorate from the same university. He was finally awarded his doctorate on February 14. He was conferred with the honor in the presence of his wife Claire Axten and 11-year-old granddaughter Freya. Dr. Axten is a father of two and grandfather of four.
Dr. Axten jokingly said that some problems take the best part of a lifetime to get your head around them. It was not all roses as he described his research to be difficult. However, he acknowledged the fact that the other graduates who were 23-24 years old accepted him as their own. Dr. Axten said that he would love talking with the younger generation while accessing the facilities of a pub.
Dr. Axten's new research is a new theory for understanding human behavior. It is expected to have the potential to change views in the field of behavioral psychology.
(Input from various media sources)