79-year-old Barbara Thrush is the oldest student admitted to university this year – and there’s 14,222 more offers
It’s never too late to learn. Barbara Thrush did a year of Italian at university 36 years ago – and now she’s been offered another crack at it. You can search the full list of offers here.
Tertiary
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In the 1980s, Barbara Thrush studied Italian for a year at Flinders University.
Now she’s going back for another crack at it.
The 79-year-old is the oldest person to receive a university offer this year through the SA Tertiary Admissions Centre.
“Thirty-six years ago I did a year of Italian and I just thought that (because I’ve forgotten it all now) it’s a good thing to keep the brain active,” she says.
“I’m very nervous because I’m not particularly tech savvy and you have to submit a lot of things by computer, so I’ll have to lift my game in that area.”
Mrs Thrush, of Marion, was a federal public servant until, under the rules at the time, she was forced to quit when she married in 1960.
She then began working for the TAB “when it was just in its infancy”, processing bets when it all had to be done manually, with no computers.
“It was full-on pressure,” she says.
She stayed at the TAB for 25 years, then finished her career doing bookwork in her daughter and son-in-law’s law firm.
The mother of three is about to embark on a Bachelor of Languages, in which she will focus exclusively on Italian.
“I have travelled there several times and I just like the language itself,” she says.
“It’s one of the romantic languages and I did find it so different from our country. It’s got the history we haven’t got, of course, and different culture and it’s so beautiful.”
On Wednesday The Advertiser publishes a liftout with more than 14,000 offers made in the major December and January rounds.
In total, SATAC has processed almost 19,000 offers.
The names of offer recipients are also available in a search tool on advertiser.com.au.