Grand master's for 97 year-old Allan Stewart

SYDNEY, May 4 - ALLAN Stewart became the world?s oldest graduate, at 91, in 2006. Today he will take his masters in clinical science at Southern Cross University.

?I have just been blessed with good genes,? Mr Stewart said.

His fourth university degree will surpass his Guinness World Record that had set in 2006 when he completed a law degree at the University of New England at age 91.

Stewart completed his first degree with a Bachelor of Dentistry from the University of Sydney in 1936.

He later completed a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at Northwestern University in Chicago, and practiced as a dentist in London, Sydney and the rural areas of northern NSW.

Stewart said that the fourth university degree may be his last.

"I can hang up my mortar board and academic robes after this one, although I said that after my last degree and then I got bored," he said in a statement.

"People should never use the excuse that `I am too old to study ' or `I have left my run too late'," Stewart said.

"It is never too late to expand your mind, make new friends and challenge yourself to achieve something worthwhile."

His lecturer Sonia Brownie at Southern Cross University said Stewart had studied mostly by correspondence online with good time management skills.