Gerrit Deems, who will be 90 years old next November, is the oldest Dutch ever defending a thesis.

On April 19, the Radboud University Nijmegen student will defend his theological thesis on the life of the catholic priest Alphonse Ariens and if successful, he will become Doctor of Theology.

Gerrit Deems was born in 1921 and thus, he is "older" than his university (1923), but that does not make him the oldest student in the Netherlands having written a thesis. A 92 year old man from Amsterdam still holds this title but after getting sick he did not manage to accomplish his thesis defence.

Source: de Gelderlander