Exceptional Nigerian grandma enrols in university after retirement to keep her brain busy, bags PhD at 71 years old

Ifeyinwa Felicia Marinze, a remarkable granny from Nigeria, graduated with a PhD at the age of 71, breaking the university’s record.

Ifeyinwa Felicia Marinze holds the record for being the institution’s oldest Doctorate alumna. She worked as a Lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology, Nigeria and ascended through the ranks to become a Chief Lecturer in the university.

However, she retired and thereafter made seeking more education her retirement project. “Before I even came in I took it as a retirement project. I retired from YABATECH as a chief lecturer so I needed to keep the brain working. So I have been taught that the brain can be extended to any level. But if you allow it to be dormant, it would die,” she said.

The 71-year-old grandma worried that if she did not keep her brain busy, it would die and could later result in the death of her entire system. “Once it starts dying, the whole system will soon die. And I am not ready to die yet so I decided to really use the brain and put into practice what I have experienced all my years of teaching in order to bring out solutions to problems I encountered in the classroom,” she added.

Mrs. Marinze already had her bachelor’s degree in education, but she decided to stretch her mind by enrolling in a program for a degree in the fundamentals of French. She first pursued a Master’s degree in French, then a Master’s degree in philosophy, and eventually a Doctorate.

“It took me nine years to get the PhD. I came in first, I did a masters. I have had all my degrees in education and I needed to enhance my French because it was Education, French, English I read in my first degree at the University of Ibadan. I came here to read Curriculum studies at the Faculty of Education – core French,” she said.

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