Keeping paperwork from degree done 40 years ago.

[Theacademicswife]

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.

I have a copy of my dissertation and my degree certificate. The rest I binned within a couple of years.

🤣 you are so wrong.
I have lots of items collected throughout my life - and some kept from the family home after my parents died. I actually have the positive pee sticks from the day I found out I was pregnant
But if I had multiple boxes of all the items from one (or more) periods of my life I'd consider that hoarding rather than keepsakes or memorabilia.
I have momentos from my time at university and can understand people keeping a bound copy of their dissertation or significant works from that time. But to keep everything is unusual behaviour by most people's standards.

I have my mums dissertation from the 1960s and zero of my own uni papers. I did keep some text books. Can he reduce it to a folder.

Can he reduce it to a folder I think if I mentioned getting rid of any of it, he'd get pretty stressed.
I do think he has a tendency to hoard things.

Just finished law degree and masters.

Any textbooks I could sell, I sold the second I submitted exams /essays.

But I kept all the printed notes and articles. 5 boxes full!

I shall get rid soon.

I've got my dissertation that's all, from the 1990s. A few books too, but I studied English so they're novels not text books.

I graduated 33 years ago, it was in computer science so fast moving area in terms of developments. I kept some books for a few years whilst relevant (say uo to 5 years). But I just have the degree certificate for the last 25 years.

I think it was possibly about rickets, @User3826. I believe there was a resurgence of rickets around the time because the provision of free cod liver oil ended and the Vit D fortication of foods was reduced as there had been a surge in hypercalcemia. I shall look it up to see if the book gives a rationale next time I visit!

Dr Spock recommended sunbathing for babies too. His book was very much in fashion in the sixties.

I still have lecture notes in the loft, and text books in the book cases. I should really soft through it all one day. I don't blame your DH, OP. A lot of hard work went into his studies and he will not feel too thrilled of letting go. It's a sentimental thing.

I start with the OU soon and it's a very different way of learning since I was last in education. Everything's done online!

I've got a lever arch file of revision notes for my finals and a couple of textbooks. I'm a medic and it's v interesting to see how treatment has changed in the 22 years since I qualified.

I’ve kept about 3 printed essays that I was especially proud of, but they’re just in the filing cabinet.

It's funny to think that this is an issue that almost certainly wouldn't exist a few years from now, when students will most probably have their entire body of work - along with all of their other correspondence, photos and such - on 1% of a micro-SD card, smaller than the size of a stamp.

I also wonder when libraries will cease to be a thing, once all books and other reading matter are read and stored digitally? Will the word (and concept of a) 'library' actually not be known or understood by people a few decades from now?

I graduated in 2000. I got rid of all books, paperwork etc years ago. All I have now is the degree certificate itself.

I kept a couple of my best undergraduate essays, just to remind myself what I am capable of!

I burned my PGCE file in a garden binfire when I left teaching. It felt good 😁

I have kept the ring file binder containing my course work from O level Biology residential visit from 1980! Lots of great memories from that week and photos too. I was awarded an 'honours for my work, the highest accolade in the school and something relatively rare. I also have an English project from 1977, also awarded an honour.
Nothing from any further studies, including degree etc. though, just some artwork from a life drawing course, again years old.
They each hold special memories of unexpected achievement, the artwork not recognised formally, but a realisation that maybe I wasn't a wholly right brain personality.
STBX is a borderline hoarder which I found deeply frustrating for many years. He still has trade catalogues from failed business 15 years out of date!
I do think folk should keep such things, but be selective, dependant on space available etc.
So, YANBU, ask him to work through the course work & select special assignments which will fill a sensible storage box or boxes. Ditch the rest, maybe with appropriate ceremony, bonfire, BBQ & drinks? Donate any suitable books to worthy causes etc.

Because, as one poster said above, of the blood, sweat & tears that went into making those notes. I can understand why someone would struggle to part with something which took so much effort to produce.