King of university degrees is 70-year old Italian @ holds 15 Bachelors or Masters Degrees
He Thanks to books & I feel proud to be Librarian
Boffins eat your hearts out: the world record
holder for the number of university degrees is a cheery but truculent 70-year
old Italian.
Luciano Baietti lives in the town of Velletri
in the Alban Hills near Rome and spends his days pottering around his small
house and garden.
But at every morning at 3am he pulls out his
textbooks and starts studying.
He now holds 15 bachelors or master’s degrees
from universities across Italy, and is already embarking on his 16th.
“Thanks to books, I feel free, dammit,” he
tells AFP.
“After all, the words share the same root,”
he says, referring to the Italian words libro (book) and libero (free).
The certificates proving his prowess hang on
the walls of his study, framing a portrait of the 19th century French essayist,
Louis-Francois Bertin, whom he cites as an influence.
“He was a man of culture and knowledge,” said
Baietti, a former headmaster of a secondary school, who made it into the
Guinness Book of Records in 2002 with his eighth degree, that time in motor
skills.
At that point he already had degrees in
sociology, literature, law, political science and philosophy, most from Rome’s
prestigious La Sapienza University, one of the oldest in the world.
Since then he’s added seven others to his
list, including one in criminology, a distance-learning one in military
strategies from Turin, and the latest in tourism from an online university in
Naples, which he was awarded at the start of this month.
“Each time I set myself a new challenge, to
see how far my body and my brain can go,” says Baietti, who started life as a
sports teacher.
His long-suffering wife, some 30 years his
junior, describes Baietti affectionately as “a real character” who is known
throughout their town.
He got most of the qualifications under his
belt while also doing his day job and volunteering with Italy’s Red Cross.
This aging eternal student’s first degree was
in physical education in 1972 — and he fell instantly in love with the academic
world.
“As well as the sporting events, there were
modules in theory which I liked, and which gave me a taste for studying,” he
says.
The most challenging and unusual degree so
far has been the military strategies one: “It was co-organized by the defense
ministry and Turin University and dealt with sensitive subjects related to
national security.”
“We had to attend the exams in uniform,” he
recalls, showing off the regimental garb hanging in his wardrobe.
His masters in criminology, which saw him
interview prisoners, also had a lasting impact.
“Listening to them, I sometimes surprised myself; I’d be convinced by their arguments, and would wonder about what was right or wrong — before realizing that I had gone off course.”
Baietti is back on course, and already preparing to start the next degree, this time in food science.
Once again, he’ll be pouring over his books
by the light of his desk lamp as outside the world sleeps on.
“At that time the brain is more open to
assimilating knowledge, and it also allows me to keep a normal family life,” he
says with a grin.
Source |
http://www.arabnews.com/
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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