You're never too old to get a degree, as 70-year-old Penny Enarson proved when she received her doctorate at Stellenbosch University yesterday. For her PhD, Enarson developed a treatment management programme for childhood pneumonia in Malawi, which she has been working on for 15 years."For me, it never felt like studying - it was just me, doing my job and helping others," she said.The Canadian - who says she is not yet ready for retirement - was among the 130 Maties who received doctorates yesterday.In 2000, when she started her research, Malawi was experiencing high rates of in-hospital fatalities because of childhood pneumonia.Enarson developed an intervention largely based on the principles of tuberculosis treatment. It included the development of training material, conducting training courses and creating functioning distribution channels for medication and equipment."The programme was a huge success and decreased childhood deaths from pneumonia in Malawi by more than 50%," said Professor Rob Gie, from the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at the faculty of medicine and health sciences.Gie said he had visited Enarson annually over five years to assist her with her work."When I looked at her data, based on the work she had done with 50000 Malawian kids, I told her to write up her research because it was good enough for a PhD. Eventually, she did."The university handed out more than 2700 degrees, including 234 PhDs, at seven ceremonies this week.The university has the highest weighted research per capita output of all universities in South Africa, which includes research publications in units, research Masters graduates and doctorate graduates.Today the university will confer an honorary doctorate on Public Protector Thuli Madonsela for her "unwavering commitment to the constitution... and her role as fearless advocate for justice".Honorary doctorates will also be conferred on internationally renowned physicist Professor Neil Turok and Capitec Bank founder and chairman Michiel le Roux...