Student, 76, graduates with PhD after more than 50 years
Dr Nick Axten hopes to publish his research, which builds on some of the ideas he worked on in the US more than five decades ago
Tuesday 14 February 2023 17:37, UK
A student who started his PhD in 1970 has graduated after more than 50 years.
Dr Nick Axten, 76, who lives in Somerset, said he needed "a long hard think" in the decades since he started his course.
He received a scholarship to study a PhD in mathematical sociology at the University of Pittsburgh in the USA in 1970 - but, five years later, he returned to the UK with the PhD unfinished.
On Tuesday, the University of Bristol made him a Doctor of Philosophy, with his wife Claire and granddaughter Freya, 11, in attendance.
Dr Axten hopes to publish his research, which builds on some of the ideas he worked on in the US more than five decades ago.
His work involves a new theory for understanding human behaviour based on people's values, which he thinks could change how behavioural psychology is viewed.
"What I was trying to do in the early 70s was exceptionally difficult," he said.
"Some problems are so great it takes the best part of a lifetime to get your head around them. They need a long hard think. This one has taken me 50 years."
'Psychology was a booming subject when I started'
Things have changed since his undergraduate days in Leeds in 1967.
"It was still flower power and there was a revolutionary feel. It was the time of the Vietnam War, Paris, Prague and student sit-ins," he recalled.
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"Jack Straw was president of the students' union in Leeds. Sociology and psychology were suddenly boom subjects. I went to study them because I wanted to understand people.
"I have loved being a student again at Bristol University.
"All of the other philosophy graduate students were around 23 but they accepted me as one of their own."
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Dr Axten revived his studies in 2016, studying an MA in Philosophy at the University of Bristol.
He then studied for a PhD in Philosophy there, finishing in 2022 at the age of 75.
During his career, he has lived all over the UK and was the creator and main writer of the school teaching programme Oxford Primary Science.
His supervisor at the University of Bristol, Professor Samir Okasha said: "Nick was an incredibly enthusiastic, energetic and committed student during his time here.
"It's fantastic to see him graduate half a century after he started his original PhD."