A GREAT-GRANDMA is considering whether to complete a masters degree in 2010.

Janet Baker, 75, graduated from the University of Huddersfield last month with a BA (Hons) in humanities.

She was congratulated at the ceremony in Huddersfield by Hollywood actor Patrick Stewart, the University's Chancellor. She studied at the its centre in Barnsley (UCB) and her former tutors have asked her to study for a masters starting in April.

But she would have to pay and has not yet decided whether she can afford to.

Janet, of Station Road, Lundwood, left school at 15. She said: "I always resented the fact I'd never had the opportunity to go to University.

"I had wanted to go to teacher training college, but family circumstances were such that you had to go out and get a job. That was always on my mind."

She worked for the majority of her adult life, with a 15 year hiatus where she raised three children. After more than a decade of retirement, her daughter Leanne encouraged her to go back into education. Janet said: "When the university set up a centre in Barnsley, that was my opportunity.

"I went in and asked for an application form to do a degree. They brought a tutor out to speak to me. He ended up interviewing me there and then, and after a few minutes, he said 'You're first class is next week'.

"I walked back down Market Hill thinking 'I'm a student... I'm a student'. I just wanted to tell everyone I saw."

Full story in this week's Chronicle