Perpetual student explained

A perpetual student or career student is either a college or university attendee who either pursues multiple terminal degrees or re-enrolls for several years more than is necessary to obtain a given degree.

For the first category, perpetual students might publish or work in several fields and are often considered polymaths.^[1]

As for the second category, as early as 1545, Christoph Stymmelius in his play Studentes explore the concept of students who go offer to university and instead of being diligent in their studies engage in debauchery.

Holders of multiple academic degrees

!Number of Earned Degrees !Name!Dates!Notes

30^[2]	Michael Nicholson	born 1941^[3]	Part-time parking attendant whose degree list includes 22 master's degrees and one doctorate.^[4]
23^[5] ^[6]	Robert W. McGee	born 1947	Holds 13 doctorates.^[7] Professor of Accounting at Fayetteville State University^[8]
20^[9]	Shrikant Jichkar	1954–2004	Indian civil servant
16^[10]	Benjamin Bolger	born 1975	Received an associate's from Muskegon Community College, his bachelor's from the University of Michigan, thirteen master's degrees and a Doctor of Design from Harvard University.^[11]
15^[12]		born 1947	Studied for degrees in physical education, law, literature, philosophy, sociology, criminology, and military strategy. In 2002, The Guinness Book of World Records officially recognized Baietti as the most graduated living person in the world.^[13]
11^[14]		1940-2014	Took his first degree from Manchester University in 1963. Earned a number of master's degrees starting in the 1970s. He earned a Ph.D. from Leeds Metropolitan University. Died while completing a second Ph.D. Worked in technical document translation for Agfa-Gevaert, for the Post Office, and as a teacher, before working as a school crossing guard in retirement.
10	Jacob Appel	born 1973	Holds both a Doctor of Medicine^[15] and a Juris Doctor. Serves on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
9^[16]	Robelyn Garcia	born 1965	Former professional women's basketball player is currently an academic at Harvard University and Arizona State University.

Long tenure to complete a single degree

• Milton De Jesús has been a student at the University of Puerto Rico since 1963. In 2010, De Jesús was interviewed by the newspaper, since he was the only student on the campus who could compare the 2010 student strikes and the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 2005 strikes.^[17]
• Johnny Lechner attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater from 1994 until at least 2009.^[18] He spent 13 years as a senior at the university.^[19]

Further reading

• Kalamatianou . Aglaia G. . McClean . Sally . 2003-12-01 . The Perpetual Student: Modeling Duration of Undergraduate Studies Based on Lifetime-Type Educational Data . Lifetime Data Analysis . en . 9 . 4 . 311–330 . 10.1023/B:LIDA.0000012419.98989.d4 . 1572-9249 . 15000407 . 22845288 . . .
• Kalamaras . Dimitrios A. . Kalamatianou . Aglaia G. . Life Table Method for the Duration of Studies: Further Results . 14th Young Statisticians Meeting . . . .

Notes and References

1. Web site: How to Be a Perpetual Student Psychology Today . 2023-09-10 . www.psychologytoday.com . en-US.
2. Web site: Miller . Korin . 2016-09-14 . The Best College Advice From This Man Who's Been In School For FIFTY-FIVE Years . 2024-06-14 . Teen Vogue . en-US.
3. Web site: 14 September 2016 . The Best College Advice from This Man Who's Been in School for FIFTY-FIVE Years .
4. Web site: Holcomb . Anne . January 19, 2009 . Twenty-seven degrees and counting: Kalamazoo man enjoys the 'freedom' of intellectual pursuits . mlive.
5. Web site: 2023-03-31 . Robert McGee . 2024-06-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230331090854/https://www.csualumni.com/stay-connected/fascinating-alumni/robert-mcgee/ . 2023-03-31 .
6. Web site: Holland . Monica . Fayetteville's Robert McGee, 74, is world champion martial artist ... and novelist, doctoral degree holder, international consultant . 2024-07-12 . The Fayetteville Observer . en-US.
7. Web site: 6 November 2019 . Alumni Spotlight - at 72, Robert W. McGee is just Getting Started .
8. Web site: Faculty & Staff . 2024-06-14 . www.uncfsu.edu . en.
9. Web site: Meet India's most educated man, who had 20 degrees, cracked UPSC twice, quit IAS job due to... . 2024-06-14 . DNA India . en.
10. News: Bernstein . Joseph . 2024-06-03 . The Man Who Couldn't Stop Going to College . 2024-06-14 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
11. News: Bernstein . Joseph . 2024-06-03 . The Man Who Couldn't Stop Going to College . 2024-06-14 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
12. Web site: King of university degrees is 70-year old Italian Inquirer News . 2024-06-14 . newsinfo.inquirer.net. 16 February 2017 .
13. Web site: 2017-02-14 . King of university degrees is 70-year old Italian . 2024-06-14 . Yahoo News . en-SG.
14. News: 2012-05-02 . Lollipop man studies 12th degree . 2024-06-14 . BBC News . en-GB.
15. Web site: Jacob Appel . 2024-06-14 . Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai . en.
16. Web site: Rev. Robelyn Garcia . 2024-06-21 . University of Sedona . en-US.
17. El Nuevo Día year xxxx, vol14449 page 6- also at: https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/miltonvive-707559
18. Web site: 2009-12-30 . A cap and gown for UW-Whitewater's perpetual student? - JSOnline . 2024-06-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091230230226/https://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/45315862.html/ . 2009-12-30 .
19. Web site: Prizevoits . Antonijs . 2009-08-02 . Fraternity House . 2024-06-14 . Apple TV . en-US .