World record alert: Canadian man takes 54 years to finish his university degree

In 2000, Robert F.P. Cronin set the Guinness World Record for taking over 52 years to complete a university degree. Now, that record has been broken by a Canadian man who took 54 years to finish a bachelor’s degree.

At 71, Arthur Ross finished what he set out to do over five decades ago.

“I have been to all of my children’s graduations,” he said in an interview with BBC. And now it’s his turn.

On May 25, 2023, he finally accepted his degree after enrolling at the University of British Columbia 54 years ago, according to UBC News.

Ross first enrolled at UBC in 1969, the year of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Woodstock Music Festival, and the release of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album. Back then, he said he very much identified with the hippie lifestyle.

Arthur Ross in 1969/UBC News

He had initially set out to get a degree in English but soon discovered a passion for theatre and quickly switched courses, taking classes to help him develop as an actor. Two years later, he moved to the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, where he completed a three-year program, but knowing the challenges of an actor’s life, he changed course.

“I liked it too much. It wasn’t going to be healthy for me,” he said. “I knew I was a good actor, but I always thought you had to be great.”

So he enrolled at the University of Toronto where he pursued a law degree.

“I decided, ‘Well, maybe I should go to law school and become a lawyer,’ sort of that last resort for everybody who can’t quite figure out what they want to do,” said Ross.

After graduating, he worked as a civil litigator in Metro Vancouver for 35 years. He eventually retired in 2016. Although retirement might allow others to slow down, Ross had unfinished business.

In November 2016, he called UBC to get a new student number and started as a part-time student in January 2017. Due to his age, tuition was free, and Ross chose to focus on history but he was particularly interested in the First World War.

“I simply could not grasp why so many people would be prepared to participate in this butchery,” he said. “However, the great revelation of pursuing a history degree was not in answering that initial question, but in looking at the sordid nature of Canadian history.”

During the six years, Ross attended classes, and when the pandemic hit, he joined virtual classrooms from a remote family property in Kamloops, which he calls “outer space.”

“I’m appreciative of the students accepting that old guy tuning in from outer space,” he joked.

Ross said his daughter told him he should pursue a master’s degree, but for now, he said, “I am pleased to have come this far.”

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