William Inglis is a dedicated student. He attends lectures five days a week, participates in classroom discussions and attends field trips outside of class hours. The difference between Inglis and the average student, however, is about 60 years. At 81, Inglis, a retired teacher and biology enthusiast, is only six years shy of earning the title of UBC’s oldest student—a landmark that, if he continues his current trajectory, he will undoubtedly reach.

Having attended classes for over 30 years, Inglis serves as an example for other students. His aim is not to achieve a certain grade, standard or certification. Rather, he comes to learn, free from the expectations and pressures of often rigorous and competitive academic undergraduate programs.

Kathy Nomme, Inglis’s biology teacher who has been teaching at UBC for almost 20 years, said there is an attitude differences between mature students and their mostly younger classmates.

“When you get past a certain age, certain things [about school] don’t scare you as much,” Nomme said. “You’re not there chasing a career because you’ve been there, done that, so now you’re looking to enrich your life. So if you don’t get that A, it doesn’t really matter. You’re there to learn.”

She explained that “the motivation that mature students have is much different than students who are there and trying to play the game so they can get the top grade and go on to professional schools.”

In Nomme’s opinion, mature students such as Inglis also add insight and perspective to the educational environment.

Having spent his entire life in academic institutions as both a student and teacher, Inglis brings a varied personal and academic background to the classroom.

After completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Western Ontario, he went on to earn his graduate degree in education from UBC, and has taught in both public and private high schools in BC, Toronto and Finland.

While he jokingly admits that he keeps coming to class because “his wife doesn’t want to see his face anymore,” it is obvious Inglis loves to learn. He has been attending UBC since 1972, taking three to five classes every semester, including summer semesters. Currently enrolled in biology, genetics and biochemistry, he commutes five days a week from Delta to attend lectures.

“My wife and I came back here from Finland in 1972 and I started taking courses then when I got a job at the high school [Delta Senior Secondary School]. The reason I started taking courses was that they…increased the salaries of the teacher every three university subjects extra they got. You could work your way up to masters and make more money when you got your master’s degree,” he said.

“After I retired and couldn’t get more money from taking the courses, I stopped working as hard and just came for the enjoyment. I usually didn’t learn enough to do examinations. For the last 25 years, I’ve been pretty lax. I enjoy listening to the lectures—they are fascinating. But it is awful hard work and unless you are prepared to make [school] your full-time goal in life, it is pretty hard.” 

Having been around campus for over 30 years, Inglis has seen more than his fair share of changes. To him, technological changes have been the most drastic, and he still does not use computers, even when his courses have an online component.

“I’m still not using the computer. I just don’t like sitting in front of an idiot box, even the television, except for hockey games and things like that. I’d rather be reading books than looking at computer screens.”

After a brief hiatus last year because of what he explains as too much traffic on his commutes from North Delta to UBC and the death of his dog, “the love of his life for 13 years,” Inglis could no longer stay away from UBC.

“I was too depressed without my fascinating lectures, and decided to come back to class this year,” Inglis said.

While it is obvious Inglis appreciates the education system, in his opinion university does not always provide an ideal learning environment. He argues that the educational experience can be isolating and that students do not always take advantage of the academic community available to them.

“It’s been the same in classes, in university, even when I was a kid your age. Some people go through the whole year and don’t even talk to anybody. They never see anybody, they never know anybody. And other kids don’t even know what the professor said all year because they’ve been talking to their friends all year,” he said.

Inglis believes that it is not only the role of the student to create an engaging and personal academic environment. Instead, he proposes that more community-based group learning should take place within the university.

“I think there should be groups set up at the beginning of the year, in every discipline and in every lecture, maybe even just six or eight in a group, and have those groups know each other and be prepared to help each other with any problems that arise, not only in an organic chemistry course, or whatever the course it is, but also on campus….[When approached about this subject], it seems the professor always says ‘oh no, that would be too logistically difficult, we couldn’t handle anything like that and the students wouldn’t like it.’ They shoot it down before they even want to talk about it,” he said.

Despite having ideas for improving the academic environment, Inglis is a realist. He knows that students experience pressures to succeed and to satisfy an end, namely a degree and career, not to mention a desire for peer recognition.

“My advice for students all over the world would be: try to overcome the drive of your chemicals that are driving you to do nothing but look for recognition from your peers,” Inglis said. “Find new things that make your life interesting.”

“This looking for recognition is the big thing that takes up most of the time and energy of people as they are developing, and it has a tremendous impact. It robs you of so much time. You can’t fight it, it’s all in your brain, it’s all chemicals, but especially from 18–25, [this need for success] robs students of so much time and so much else they could get out of their short time on this planet.”

“Be true to yourself,” he added, “and try to control your chemical drive to succeed. Otherwise, it will control your life.”