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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Keeping paperwork from degree done 40 years ago.

91 replies

Theacademicswife · 26/07/2023 15:04

If you've done a degree 10+ years ago, how much, if any of your coursework/textbooks have you kept?

DH did a degree 40 years ago and has all of the paperwork and associated books from it stored in boxes in the loft.

He did another OU degree 20 years ago and you've guessed it, all the paperwork from it has been added.

After we got married, his mum was forever asking him to take it from her house and eventually gave up asking.
When she died, he brought it back to our house. Which is where it resides now.

He does tend to hold on to things for sentimental reasons, but AIBU to expect he should have gotten rid of the paperwork by now?

I know getting rid of it is nonnegotiable, but just wondered, for others, is keeping it a thing?

YABU - A lot of hard work went into getting it. It's not unreasonable to want to keep it.

YANBU - It should have went long ago.

OP posts:
FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 26/07/2023 16:38

Suitcases and boxes full of uni work are not the norm, by anyone's standards.

No, I agree it seems an awful lot - unless he had a solid 20-year uni career or something.

Then again, if keeping it all tangibly means a lot to him as a marker of his proud achievements, the amount that OP clarified still doesn't sound like it would take up much more than a very small corner of most lofts.

This just made me think of all the threads where people with a shoebox of irreplaceable photos and paperwork from landmark points in their and their family's lives are told that they are hoarding and/or have mental health issues for not wanting to instantly chuck them out with their old cereal boxes and bean tins.

caringcarer · 26/07/2023 16:50

I kept my dissertation because I had paid to have it bound. Everything else ditched about 4 years after graduation. I realised I didn't need it.

starfishmummy · 26/07/2023 16:50

Peony654 · 26/07/2023 15:31

YANBU. Unless they work in the exact field their degree was in (and need to refer to text books/papers), definitely bin it.

I kept mine in the parents loft for decades - I gradually got rid - lecture notes went first as they probably wouldn't have made much sense then eventually got rid if the rest as I'd changed careers and tbh anything I needed to know I could find on the internet now anyway. I habe my certificates if course and the little slip they posted to me with my final results on.

cocksstrideintheevening · 26/07/2023 16:54

Nothing!

Clarabellasingsthisbit · 26/07/2023 16:57

I've kept both my dissertations from 1979-they're somewhere in the loft.They cost me blood,sweat and tears-and a small fortune as in those days you had to pay a typist to type everything out,and it wasn't easy to throw them out after all that effort although I haven't looked at them since.

I have absolutely no idea where my degree certificates are though 😆I think I'm past needing them now though....

Sleepyteach · 26/07/2023 17:00

I graduated 16 years ago, I have a couple of books at home and a few at work from my degree and PGCE that I occasionally refer to. In terms of work I have everything electronically and a few printed assignments with feedback but no lecture notes. (Maybe a ringbinder full). The one thing I wish I did have was the essay I had to hand write in my first year, it took me forever to do and I did the last bit of it whilst rather drunk so I’d love to reread that! 😂 so glad they got rid of that stupid policy by the time I got to my second year!

museumum · 26/07/2023 17:01

Binned all my notes and paperwork - physics - either I no longer understood a single bit of the squiggles and greek letters or it was waaay out of date (1990s). Kept the core textbook for posterity.
I have kept my MSc stuff though, that was writing-based and still makes sense (phew!)

ManateeFair · 26/07/2023 17:06

Without seeing what kind of stuff he's keeping, or knowing why he wants to keep it, it's impossible to say how normal/reasonable it is.

I agree that (in most cases, although it would depend on the degree I think) textbooks and work produced probably won't be of practical use 40 years on, but I suspect most people who are keeping their uni work are keeping for sentimental reasons anyway. It's a reminder of one of their life achievements, and because they put a lot of effort into it at the time they don't want to chuck it in the bin.

For me, that's a perfectly valid reason for them to keep it. It's OK to keep things that mean something to you. But think the amount of stuff is also a factor. I've kept a few bits but I haven't kept all my piles and piles of scribbled lecture notes, or the reams of stuff I photocopied from academic journals, or my exam revision, or previous drafts of the final essays, or anything like that - that would seem a bit excessive to me!

Basically, I have a slimline box file that contains print-outs of my undergrad essays and dissertation, and digital-only copies of the work I produced for my postgrad degree more recently. The only textbooks I've kept are two from my postgrad degree because, for reasons I won't bore you with, they are still relevant to my interests and the material in them is still current. That's all.

ManateeFair · 26/07/2023 17:07

2 suitcases plus about 5 boxes

OK, that does sound excessive then

YouPistonWhat · 26/07/2023 17:09

30+ years and I still have some of mine. A couple of well thumbed text books, my dissertation and a few essays. It was such an awful lot of work I just can’t dump them.

boddingtonbee · 26/07/2023 17:10

Got all mine from 20-30 years ago - A level notes, undergraduate and postgraduate notes and a random NVQ completed at work. I even have my National Record of Achievement book. All stored in my study. Thankfully we have a largish house so in my room I decide what I keep.

AlisonDonut · 26/07/2023 17:12

I gave all my textbooks away to new older students I knew and hand shredded all my essays and notes to go in the compost bin.

I have kept my photography qualification stuff though.

AlisonDonut · 26/07/2023 17:14

I did 4 degree level quals, so there was alot of it.

nonevernotever · 26/07/2023 17:21

I graduated in 1989 and have just managed to get rid of the last folder of assignments. I still have many of the books (not a subject that dates in the same way and one I'm still interested in.) And a folder of student social life related stuff.

MargaretThursday · 26/07/2023 17:42

All mine, and dh has all of his from 25+ years ago.
It's just one box each I think, dh's might be two boxes because he did a Dphil as well.
I wish he's get rid of the 8 boxes of vintage "Computer Shopper" magazines, but don't mind about the academic stuff.

LlynTegid · 26/07/2023 17:45

I have not kept mine, other than the certificate.

JaninaDuszejko · 26/07/2023 17:46

I got rid of textbooks and lecture notes years ago. Still have my PhD thesis obviously.

Tangled123 · 26/07/2023 17:47

I took my uni lecturer’s advice of keeping my notes in case I did a masters. I’m finally doing the equivalent over 10 years later but haven’t looked at my old notes once. They’re currently in the attic of my parents’ house (I think), but I would have no problem throwing the stuff out if I saw it again. I did Law though, so a good bit of it is probably no longer relevant. I might keep the cover page for the only coursework I got a first in though (or at least a photo).

Clingfilm · 26/07/2023 17:48

Yanbu. It won't get looked at, it's collecting dust.
As DP tells his parents, if you don't sort it all now it's all going in a skip the day after the funeral. 😂

GalileoHumpkins · 26/07/2023 17:48

My husband has his old school books, it drives me bonkers that he won't get rid of anything.

Watsername · 26/07/2023 17:51

I still have all my work from my degree. It’s in neatly bound folders on a book shelf in the study. I have the space to keep it, so why not?!

ejbaxa · 26/07/2023 17:51

Dh and I graduated 25 years ago. We have nothing, apart from a degree certificate each. We then did professional exams. Again, not a shred of paperwork, just certificates.

RantyAnty · 26/07/2023 18:00

Time to reduce to one file box. That's plenty.

HundredMilesAnHour · 26/07/2023 18:02

I kept some of the textbooks for a few years (mainly because they were expensive) and then got rid of them as I wanted the space. Now all I have is my degree certificate.

MintJulia · 26/07/2023 18:08

Yanbu.

I still have my thesis and some of the books, but the rest of the paperwork was binned after about a year.