Debra Dunstan has just submitted the final assignment for her Master of Business Administration (MBA) and she's elated. It's her sixth formal qualification, after a combined 19 years of study.
It's not been easy, juggling motherhood, running her own business and then various demanding professional roles.
"With anything in life, there is a price to pay, and my studies have demanded a great deal of self-discipline and determination," Debra says. "When I talk about my career, I talk about vertical, horizontal and diagonal progressions, but each step has built on the other to bring me to where I am today."
That's as a Professor and Head of School of Psychology at the University of New England (UNE). And the sense of personal achievement is not lost on this "country kid who went to a little one-teacher school" and became the first in her family to attend university.
Debra's first career was as a rehabilitation physiotherapist, before she devoted 11 years to raising her three children. A Lifeline course led her down the psychology path, compelling her to complete a psychology major, before Debra decided that clinical psychology was the way to go.
"So I did a Masters degree at Charles Sturt University, four years by distance education, and by this stage I had a private psychology practice in Tamworth," Debra says. "Then I saw the next bit of research that I wanted to conduct and took that up to do a PhD, full-time by distance, at the age of 48, while still running my private practice and with three kids at home."
"I had my dedicated hours of study. No-one was allowed to bother me between 4.30 and 7.30 each morning and that's how I got through. That left evenings to give the family my full attention."
Eight days after submitting her PhD, Debra started as a psychology lecturer at UNE, eventually rising to become the director of the UNE Clinical Psychology Program and then, four years ago, deputy head of the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences. "Then I thought I'd need an MBA," she says, "but I was promoted to head of the School of Psychology before I'd finished."
It's an impressive resume, in anyone's books, but Debra insists her career advancement was not without sacrifice. "When I was in clinical practice I often saw stressed young women trying to juggle family and career, and I would recall what former Governor-General and mother of five Quentin Bryce once said: 'We women can have it all, but not at the same time'," Debra says. "It's about learning to cut yourself some slack and learning what you can and can't reasonably manage. This helped me to set myself up to succeed rather than to fail.
"I love sailing, and careers are a lot like sailing. Each time you see the wind shift on the water, you have to cut your jib and turn a bit in order to capture the wind before it comes up."
A naturally organised and efficient person, Debra learnt during her years of study "to just take what I could chew and chew it well." "I primarily did one unit at a time, and I had a supportive partner," she says. "This helped me to maintain a life balance - attending to exercise, sleep and self-soothing activities or rewards. I constantly reminded myself of my goals and visualised how good I would feel when I got there. Finishing this MBA on top of my busy full-time role as head of school has required every bit of self-discipline I possessed."
Still, Debra encourages any prospective student to take control of the tiller. "Some people limit themselves because they don't think they fit the usual model of a student," she says. "It's never too late to study and you will get a return on your investment every day down the track. I now have the enormous privilege of giving people like my younger self opportunities that they never thought possible. I can't go through graduation days without weeping."