Kuala Lumpur, Aug 12 - Fortyfive years after dropping out, 62-year-old Gurcharan Kaur has earned a first class honours degree - and the journey had been tough. She used to drive 113 km to the university and return home late at night.

For Gurcharan Kaur, it meant 14-hour days over weekends for four years to earn the first class honours degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).

She resumed higher studies 45 years after she dropped out to look after her parents.

The Malaysian Indian used to wake up at 5 a.m., leave an hour later from her home in Kuala Pilah, the district town in the neighbouring Negeri Sembilan state and drive 113 km to Universiti Putra Malaysia.

It also meant driving back home at 8 p.m. along a road that tested even the most experienced drivers.

It was a daunting task, as she now acknowledges.

Failing memory also posed a problem at her age.