A Skipton father has followed in the footsteps of his son and daughter.

Paul Samways, of Queen Street, has been awarded an MSc in Marketing from Huddersfield University, where his children Andrew and Helen had already studied as undergraduates.

He will receive his certificate at an awards ceremony in November.

Andrew and Helen Samways were both born and raised in the Yorkshire Dales before moving to North Devon in the mid 1980s.

Andrew, now 26, returned north in 1995, choosing Huddersfield University to study for a B.Eng (Hons) in mechanical engineering. A year later he was joined by his sister, Helen, who did a BA (Hons) degree in marketing.

It was listening to discussions between his children that inspired their father to follow them into higher education.

He took early retirement from his post as managing director of an electronics manufacturing firm and returned to live in Skipton. Sibling rivalry on whether engineering design or marketing sold a product led to him enrolling for a Masters degree.

"Throughout their studies I had to put up with these sporadic outbreaks of sibling rivalry," said 58-year-old Paul. "It was certainly tough when they both claimed that I knew too little on either subject!"

As Helen was finishing her final year dissertation, her father was setting out on the three-and-a-half years of evening study that would eventually lead to his.

"It was very hard at first, and after years in industry I had to learn how to think in an academic way," said Paul. "But I had heard from both my son and daughter how friendly Huddersfield was, and how helpful the lecturers were, and I wasn't disappointed - even though I was somewhat older than most of my classmates!"

After graduation, Andrew joined Dyson Ltd in Malmesbury as a design engineer, spending a year in Malaysia. Helen spent a year in Australia following her graduation and on her return became a product manager at Yorkshire Fittings in Leeds.

Meanwhile their father has come out of retirement, returning to full time work as a Market Towns Initiative manager for development agency Yorkshire Forward.

"I haven't regretted taking up an opportunity to learn again - it has been as rewarding for me as it was for Andrew and Helen.

"Between our two generations, we have had eight continuous years of study at just the one university, Huddersfield."