‘But where do you find the time?” and ‘I’m far too old for that now.”
…Subtext: ‘I’m daunted by the idea.” These are some of the reactions when you tell people you’ve gone back to study in your 40s.
I celebrate 20 years as a journalist this year and every time I go out to interview someone or begin to write a story I’m as excited as I was when I was a cub reporter at the then Weekly Mail. So I didn’t return to academe because I was bored with journalism.
Doing a PhD was nowhere in my ‘life plan” (not that I believe in those, preferring to take each year as it comes). But, when I went freelance a few years ago, I realised there were going to be days when I did not have work.
I was scared of not working Monday to Friday; more a fear of being bored and getting into mischief than not earning enough. It was an impulsive decision over lunch with my political studies honours’ supervisor and friend, Professor Sheila Meintjes.
She heads that department at Wits University and, after discussing a few topics for an hour, I decided to embark on an MA by dissertation in the same department I’d left in 1989.
The topic was ‘The role of race in Thabo Mbeki’s discourse”. I started the dissertation in February 2005 and completed it 12 months later. I was genuinely stunned when I heard that I had passed cum laude.
My marks during my undergraduate years had taken a dive from my school years: 99% of my energy went into the Black Students’ Society at Wits, as well as to youth movements and women’s groups outside the university. The struggle came first.
Leftover energy went into cobbling together assignments at the last minute to meet the deadlines and get that ‘DP” (the dreaded ‘due performance” certificate without which you couldn’t write your exams — which I often sat after studying only the night before).
During the 1980s no activists worth their salt attended graduations, as a protest against apartheid education. So it was in November 2006 when I attended my first.
I remember the hush and then gasps when my topic was read out and everyone turning around to see who this person was taking on the president, of all people. Enthused by the MA success, I enrolled as a full-time PhD candidate in 2008.
I’m now revising, and writing the concluding chapter of, my thesis, entitled ‘The Role of the Media in a Transitional Democracy: Unravelling the Politics between the Media, the State and the ANC in South Africa”.
The research question — how is an independent media intrinsic to the democratic transition? — arises from recent efforts by the ANC to control and shape the role of the media in South Africa.
What will I do with a PhD? I don’t know for sure, but it is probably a wise idea to put it on my CV, which might help my dormant writing, editing and research CC spring into action and get the earnings flowing in the next year.
Meanwhile, interesting doors to the world are opening up: in May this year I’m delivering two papers at overseas conferences: one on Zapiro, my favourite cartoonist, and different meanings of freedom of expression in South Africa, at the University of Basel in Switzerland; and the other in Prague, on the problems of democracy related also to the media. These midlife returns to academe have required discipline and focus more than masses of brain power.
There’s a lot of finicky pernickety work, such as converting my entire thesis from footnote-referencing style to the Harvard style, for instance. But there’s also much conceptual work required and you need to keep ensuring that you’re linking different chapters to your central theme. And expressing yourself fairly well is a basic requirement.
Being a postgrad in your 40s or 50s has one huge advantage: you have insights that would have been impossible in your 20s. You can apply theory to practice and practice to theory better.
If I’d done a MA straight after honours, I would not have had the confidence to write what I do now. And finding the time?
Well, instead of watching TV at night or accepting endless invitations to book launches and networking events, you can read your academic works. If you have your own study or office at home, as I do, you cut out travelling time: you’re at your desk by 7.30am and can get a lot of work done before you have to do kiddies’ lifts in the afternoon.
Do choose a topic that you feel strongly about or you might not finish it. I would not have got this far with my thesis if I did not feel strongly about media and democracy. I feel it is a contribution to knowledge and I may well convert it into a book.
There are some downsides. The loss of income is a big one. If you are doing a PhD full-time, this has to be the main focus in your work week. I work on it nearly every day.
I am lucky to be the recipient of two scholarships but they don’t come anywhere near to what I’d be earning if I was a full-time employee at a newspaper, or fully involved in the writing, editing and research company I set up when I went freelance.
Another downside is that for your children — mine are 14 and 17 this year — you might always seem to be working (mine say I’m a workaholic). But it’s also very possible that they will be encouraged to pursue higher education one day because of the example of their parents.
I do find going in to the university a big pain, mainly because you spend a huge amount of time driving around to find parking. Not that you have to go in too much.
You don’t have to have consultations on campus: you can have them at your supervisor’s house, as I often do, or in a coffee shop.
You can’t always find the books you need in the university library so you often have to buy them from Amazon.com. And although this service is amazing — I’ve received books within three weeks of ordering them — it makes a huge dent in the credit card. But these downsides are mild compared with the positives.
So if like me you’re in your 40s, have kids who (rightly) demand time and your career makes more than enough to pay the bills, would I nudge you towards postgraduate study? Yes.
The biggest reason is the sense of personal achievement, but you’re also making a contribution to knowledge. And studying keeps you young — if not in looks then definitely in the brain: you’re using those cells, so they don’t die off too quickly.
It’s like the gym: the more time you spend there, the more likely you are to have a great body. There’s more than enough time to rest when you’re gone for good, so why take time off now?
But be warned, you can get hooked. Now I’m thinking of doing post-doctoral studies.