Students from the first two Oxford University courses to be offered on the Internet have graduated, writes Madeleine Pennel.

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof Susan Iversen, representing the Vice-Chancellor Prof Colin Lucas, presented 48 people with their awards at the Sheldonian Theatre yesterday.

The part-time distance learning courses are a Diploma in Computing and an Advanced Diploma in Local History.

The students come from a wide range of backgrounds.

The ceremony saw a lorry driver rub shoulders with a barrister and retired NHS chief executive.

Among them was postman, Jim Moffat, 50, of Orchard Rise, Chesterton, near Bicester, who did the computer course.

He left school aged 15 without any qualifications and the course was the first time he had studied anything since. He said: "It all started when I bought my wife a computer. I said I would not touch it, but I sat down and it really grabbed me.

"I wanted to do a course on the Internet because I like working on my own and, as I have not been in a classroom for 35 years, I didn't want to make a fool of myself."

He said graduating at the Sheldonian ceremony was one of the "highlights" of his life.

Launched in January 1999 by Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education, the courses can be tackled by students anywhere in the world and at any time of the day or night.

The courses have grown in popularity with double the number of people applying for 2001 than in 1999.