Just a number?

I enjoyed the piece on doctoral supervisors having to adapt to new power dynamics, especially when they are younger than their students (“Do academics need a ‘split personality’ to teach older PhDs?”, News, 16 June).

I am 78, in the final year of my PhD studies, and currently into write-up, hoping to submit later this year. I must be the oldest such student in the UK, surely?

My director of studies is a mere stripling of 71. I am teaching him, very informally, about my subject. He teaches me, very formally, how to research a thesis and write a dissertation.

John Grierson
Falmouth University

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