Hi everyone,
For anyone who is still interested, I successfully completed my Graduate Certificate in History of Art in 2011. Then I took a "gap year" , doing my day job, mugging up on my German and travelling to the USA. A Merit in the Grad Cert gave me automatic admission to the MA which I'm now doing part-time over two years. I'm about a third of the way through. It's good fun and not quite as scary as I feared, although there's a lot to do. All being well, I'll be 74 on completion and, because of the way things operate at the Uni of London, 75 when it comes to the graduation ceremony. So my message is to anyone of any age, give it a go! That is of course if you are able to find the ridiculously high fees. Fortunately, post grad fees for London are just about doable if, like me, you are working full time. Not sure now about a PhD, I might start over by doing a first degree in something completely new - again if I can find the dosh.

Thanks for the welcome, hazyjane. This looks like a useful place to be.:-)

Hi Lugna,

Thank you for your kind words. I should point out that I was not always dedicated to study. I was a sixth-form drop-out and. having had enough of hearing my parents use the excuse "you are only a schoolgirl" as a reason for barring me from perfectly innocent activities (no sex and drugs and rock-'n'-roll - that came later!) and of the snobbish, elitist attitudes of my (admittedly very good) girls' grammar school, I went and got myself a job at Foyles, the famous bookshop on Charing Cross Road.

I think it's much more fun to study when you are getting on a bit, there's less pressure, no one asks you what you are going to do with your BA.BSc, MA or whatever.  It doesn't matter a damn - it's certainly a better alternative than tottering down to the day centre for a nice game of bingo and a singalong to Vera Lynn, that some people believe to be approriate activities. for people of my cohort.

I sincerely hope 75 isn't too old to start a PhD.

In 2010, aged 70, I returned to uni part-time (I still work full time as a freelance linguist) to take a Graduate Certificate in History of Art and Architecture, which would serve as a conversion course which, if passed at a suitable level, would enable me to enrol on a part-time MA. I still work full-time as a freelance linguist, a profession in which people continue to thrive well into their 80s and beyond.

Having enjoyed the Grad Cert course far more than my first degree (started at 36 and completed at 39) I did well and today received an unconditional offer and will be starting the MA this autumn at age 72. I suppose I am lucky to be studying at Birkbeck where they are well accustomed to (very) mature under- and post-grads and, apart from on application forms, age has never been mentioned. All being well, I would love to go and do to a PhD, by which time I would be 74. I'm not sure how the powers that be at Birkbeck would regard such an application, but I sense that it would be treated on its merits and I wouldn't be turned down merely on grounds of age.