An Arthur Conan Doyle classic, The Adventure of the Three Students, will probably be forgotten about in any discussion of the best of Sherlock Holmes. It is not in the same league as the Red Headed League or as cryptic as the Dancing Men. 

Doyle restricted himself to three; not so James McGill, author of The Perpetual Student. His book encompasses an entire tribe whose numbers are increasing by the day. A perpetual student is no longer someone to dismiss at the drop of a baccalaureate. He rates a mention in Wikipedia. “A perpetual student… is a college or university attendee who re-enrolls for several years, typically more than what is necessary to obtain a given degree.”

A perpetual student is in bad odour these days. Look at some recent headlines. “Endless plague of perpetual students,” says the Wall Street Journal. The financial newspaper goes on to explain that “College graduates who took a detour around the weak job market by going back for advanced degrees are beginning to emerge from those programmes — and finding job prospects aren’t much better than they were a couple of years ago…” Here’s another item from Gulf News: “Some young adults put off taking up jobs in India.” Gulf News talks about Rakesh Mittal (57) who was looking forward to retirement. That doesn’t seem likely any time now, his company willing. The reason: his two sons, though well educated, don’t seem to want to take up jobs. They are all for doing something on their own. 

The startup bug seems to have bitten everybody. Nobody wants to join the establishment, even such highly-rated employers as Hindustan Unilever Ltd and ITC. Despite the Rs 2 crore per year that Google is offering, there are limited takers. True, stock options can make you a millionaire while you are still an employee. But ask the Bansals at Flipkart; they are enjoying themselves while taking their company to astronomical valuations.

In India, the perpetual student is a rare bird. First, there are not enough scholarships going to fund you for life. Second, the social pattern is such that sons are supposed to take care of parents in their old age. This is evident particularly in the rural areas where the sons take over from their father when he is unable to pull his weight any longer. In the US, the responsibility of the parents stop after school: the rest of your education is funded by the state in terms of scholarships and grants. Being a perpetual student is, therefore, much easier. 

But there is still a stigma attached to it. The only time a perpetual student doesn’t draw a sneer from those who are doing a “real” job is when they are working towards a profession in academics. But learning because you have nothing else to do is like most Indian MTechs progressing from BTechs because they haven’t got a satisfactory job.

There are other reasons too (see box). Fear of the outside world is a big contributor.

There is a lot of advice available on how to stop people from going that way. Here’s a couple from a Forbes article titled 12 Ways To Prevent Kids From Becoming Perpetual Students:

Foster a student lifestyle. They should be drinking beer, not martinis.Tell kids about your financial situation. 

Besides, doesn’t it sound incongruous for a 40-year-old who has been given marching orders by Merrill Lynch to be sharing the same classroom with folks who aspire to join Merrill Lynch? 

WHINING SCHOOLBOYS

Reasons for such behaviour include:

• Inability to find a job.
• Inability to complete a final thesis or dissertation.
• Student loans becoming due for payment once student status is lost.
• Desire to avoid getting a job.

Source: Wikipedia