Perpetual student

A perpetual student, gradual student, or career student is either a college or university attendee who either pursues multiple terminal degrees or re-enrolls for several years more than is necessary to obtain a given degree.

Holders of multiple academic degrees

Number of Earned Degrees	Name	Dates	Notes
30[1]	Michael Nicholson	1941–present	Part-time parking attendant whose degree list includes 22 master's degrees and one doctorate.[2]
23[3][4]	Robert W. McGee	1947–present	Holds 13 doctorates.[5] Professor of Accounting at Fayetteville State University[6]
20[7]	Shrikant Jichkar	1954–2004	Indian civil servant
16[8]	Benjamin Bolger	1975–present	Received an associate's from Muskegon Community College, his bachelor's from the University of Michigan, thirteen master's degrees and a Doctor of Design from Harvard University.[9]
15[10]	Luciano Baietti	1947–present	Studied for degrees in physical education, law, literature, philosophy, sociology, criminology, and military strategy. In 2002, The Guinness Book of World Records officially recognized Baietti as the most graduated living person in the world.[11]
11[12]	Bruce Berry	1940–2014	Took his first degree from Manchester University in 1963. Earned a number of master's degrees starting in the 1970s. He earned a Ph.D. from Leeds Metropolitan University. Died while completing a second Ph.D. Worked in technical document translation for Agfa-Gevaert, for the Post Office, and as a teacher, before working as a school crossing guard in retirement.
11[13]	John Warwick Montgomery	1931–2024	Lawyer and Christian apologist
10	Jacob Appel	1973–present	Holds both a Doctor of Medicine[14] and a Juris Doctor. Serves on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
9[15]	Robelyn Garcia	1965–present	Former professional women's basketball player is currently an academic at Harvard University and Arizona State University.
9[16][17]	Domaine Javier	1992/1993–present	Filipino-American actress, nurse, and TV personality.
9	Woody R. Clermont	1970–present	Haitian-American judge from Broward County, Florida.

Long tenure to complete a single degree

See also: Progress toward degree

• Milton De Jesús has been a student at the University of Puerto Rico since 1963. In 2010, De Jesús was interviewed by the newspaper, since he was the only student on the campus who could compare the 2010 student strikes and the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 2005 strikes.^[18]
• Kaija Hammar has been a student at the University of Jyväskylä since 1974. She has accumulated over 3 500 ECTS-credits, equivalent to the span of over eleven bachelor's or master's degrees in Finland. She has completed a bachelor's degree in political sciences and a bachelor's degree in adult education.^[19]
• Johnny Lechner attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater from 1994 until at least 2009.^[20] He spent 13 years as a senior at the university.^[21]