‘Just keep going’ message from life-long learner PhD

‘Just keep going’ message from life-long learner PhD

When 68-year-old Dr Judith Selvaraj received her PhD at the University of Auckland graduation ceremony on Tuesday it was the final stop on a long learning ride that has taken her far beyond any hopes, dreams and expectations of her younger years.

“I would never have thought a girl like me could end up with a PhD, a girl from a poor family living in Ponsonby before it became smart. I am thrilled,” says Judy, who now lives at Northcote Point.

For almost three decades university education has been central to Judy’s life as she worked her way through her first Bachelors of Arts degree, her first Master’s in Psychology (Hons) and her second, a Master of Education (First Class Hons).

“I have made lots of sacrifices but I wouldn’t change a thing. My commitment to life-long learning has been about empowerment and being able to remain independent. It has been my focus, helped me through personal adversities and I have never been bored.”

Judy’s experience has made her a strong advocate for life-long education for other mature learners: “It is so important to keep your mind alive and never too late to start,” she says.

Judy completed her PhD in three years, following two years on the Faculty of Education and Social Work’s Doctor of Education programme. Her research covered special education and inclusion of students with special needs in secondary schools.

Throughout her studies, she ran her North Shore educational psychology practice and helped to look after her grandson Jackson.

“It has been a juggling act,” says Judy. “But I kept going and that’s my message to anyone embarking on serious study – just keep going.”

Juggling responsibilities was nothing new for Judy. She was a single parent working fulltime when she began her university journey in 1987.

University had not been an option in her youth.

“My family was poor and neither of my parents went to secondary school so they didn’t encourage us into tertiary education ourselves.

“My mother was a truly wonderful woman who did the best she could in very difficult circumstances. She had a hard life that really wasn’t very happy. She died too young but left me the legacy of knowing that I didn’t want the life she had,” says Judy.

Judy had excelled in shorthand, typewriting and bookeeping at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School so, after working in business for a number of years, she trained as a commercial teacher at the old Epsom Teachers’ Training College.

“But I didn’t want to teach commerce forever and I didn’t have a degree like most of my teaching colleagues. I wanted to change that,” says Judy.

And so, the first woman in her family to enter university, Judy began her three decades of study at the University of Auckland.

Her own academic success has been echoed by her daughter Anoushka, who realised her mother’s dream to make a difference to her family through education, with her own three awards from the University of Auckland. Anoushka’s father, Judy’s former husband, also holds two degrees from Auckland, so altogether, the family boasts a total of 10 academic awards from the same university.

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