Image courtesy MastersDegree.net
After three years part-time, gentle reader, I've graduated in my M.A.
Resuming study in your seventh decade is perhaps a little unusual, but I need a goal, and I'm a lousy golfer.
I already had two degrees from the seventies and eighties, when I got a leg-up post Vietnam through a Department of Labour and National Service rehabilitation scholarship, so I had no problem getting admitted once the University of Queensland dug up my academic record.
I wasn't so lucky in getting a statement from my post-graduate diploma from Griffith University, as it had been lost in a warehouse in the 2011 flood, but they did write a letter of confirmation of enrolment.
Academia has changed more than a little in forty plus years, but the principles remain the same. You simply have to do a little work each day. It's straightforward when you're retired.
These days, information technology is all the goal, so I had to brush up a little on my computer skills. None of that was around in the seventies.
My project was an examination of the old myth "Every national serviceman who went to Vietnam was a volunteer". Others have already exposed it as nonsense, but I wanted to investigate it myself, and did so by interviewing Vietnam veterans who were Nashos. I managed to find a few volunteer Nashos, but they're like hens teeth.
Bizarrely, some of those who applied for early registration finished up as accidental volunteers - strange but true.
Because the experience was so enjoyable, I'm considering continuing, although I'll need an institution, a new supervisor and a new project. I'm open to suggestions.
In the meantime, here's a link to my thesis. It's not exactly light reading, but some of you may be interested.
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