French Woman Colette Bourlier Aged 91 Gets PhD After 30 Years

A woman aged 91 has
become one of the oldest
people in France to gain a
PhD after she completed a
thesis that she had begun
three decades earlier.

Colette Bourlier was awarded
the mark of “high distinction”
for her work, which she
successfully defended on
Tuesday before a jury of the
University of Franche-Comte
in Besancon, eastern France.
“It took a bit of time to write
because I took breaks,”
Bourlier said, explaining the
decades it took her to
complete her work.
The thesis was entitled
“Immigrant workers in
Besancon in the second half
of the 20th century.”
It drew on her own
experience as a teacher in
literacy programmes for
immigrants in the eastern
French city.

She became interested in a
PhD after she retired in
1983. Normally, a PhD in
France is written in three
years, but Bourlier was “an
extremely atypical” student,
said her professor, Serge
Ormaux.
“She is probably the only
person who knew all the
aspects in such detail and
who was able to weave
everything together. She
backed it up with statistical
analyses.”

Source: TheGuardian.com

That's a very good one!
Cudos grandma!