After 37 years at the University of Life, Jon Sanders from Harold has decided to take a gap year to ‘enlighten his life’ by completing a law course at Dunstable University.
Mr Sanders has been a proud student at the University of Life since leaving school at 14, a fact he talks about with the pride, enthusiasm and smugness of an Oxbridge graduate.
“I was never the ‘academic type’,” Mr Sanders explained, “which would normally lead people towards art college or a media studies degree, but I decided to do all my learning in the real world.”
“But now I have managed to save up enough money to take a some time away from working and enjoy some life-enhancing experiences, including a crash course in law and if I have enough time I may also try to ‘find myself’ in a creative writing evening class.”
Mr Sanders freely admits that a gap year wasn’t in his plans but a meeting of the University of Life’s Debating Society – which meets most evenings in the Squirrel Lickers Arms – made him realise that he may have missed out.
“The debate was the usual one-sided affair which normally concludes that people who chose higher education do so to avoid doing any real work. But then one member of the debating society started talking about his educational experience that culminated in a first from the Sorbonne in Paris.”
“It was the first time he had mentioned it, and despite being stuck in awful conditions, roughing it in France, it sounded like such a spiritual experience I decided I needed to ‘find myself’ in a law course at Dunstable.”
Mr Sanders will start his gap year next September, but says that after the experience he will return to the University of Life. “My old Dad was so happy that I started at the UoL at just 14, I don’t want to let him down.”
