Canadian woman is world's first Beatles graduate | Music | guardian.co.uk

"Beatles graduate Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy Long and winding road ... Beatles graduate Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy. Photograph: Alan Edwards/PA

Finally, there is a Beatles fan with a degree to prove it. Fifty-three-year-old Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy has become the first graduate of Liverpool Hope University's MA in the Beatles. This new master of Fab Fourology studied the Beatles' compositions, sound and impact on pop culture.

'It's absolutely academic,' Zahalan-Kennedy told the BBC. 'It was an examination of how the Beatles came to be. What the political and social climate was and the cultural aspects that helped to facilitate an environment where the Beatles could happen.'

In 2009, the Liverpool university launched the programme The Beatles, Popular Music and Society, which examines the 'significance of the music of the Beatles in the construction of identities, audiences, ethnicities and industries, and localities'. Zahalan-Kennedy was one of 12 full-time students; she graduated yesterday.

Canadian woman is world's first Beatles graduate | Music | guardian.co.uk: