The oldest university student in Spain is Luis Francisco Ponce de León Jiménez. He is 80 years old, has 10 university degrees and several awards for his studies, including one for the best final year student. But that doesn’t stop him from continuing to go to university: he is currently studying International Relations at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Among the majors he has on his resume are Telecommunications, Physics, Philosophy and Letters, Oriental Studies… among others. His official titles are signed by different heads of the university centers, which makes visible a part of the history of Spain in recent years. “The first two titles were still given to me during the Franco dictatorship,” he comments in an interview on Telemadrid.
“The first time I went to university I studied two university degrees at the same time, Telecommunications and Physics. I finished them in 1968, the same year I got married,” he points out.
The desire to learn and know is what has led him in his life to spend so much time among books, something that “I am passionate about.” But not everything in his life has been study. “I worked for almost 40 years at IBM, which has allowed me to travel a lot. I have been to all continents except Africa, unfortunately. I have worked in London, Sweden… I also spent four years in the United States, which allowed me to get to know cities like California or Chicago.”
The paradox occurs that one of his sons, Luis, is now a professor of Musical Education also at the Autonomous University of Madrid. “Sometimes, emails that students send me reach him because they get the address mixed up,” explains his son. His daughter Mercedes, who also accompanies him in the television interview, studied at the same university center. “It’s like our second home,” argues the son.
And that desire to learn, to always read, to review many notes… has also led him to speak Chinese. After studying several science courses, he opted for philosophy and oriental studies and took the Chinese branch. “I was curious to know other cultures,” he says.
