FROM doorman to doctor - Jeff Slater got his education the hard way.

For years he was a bouncer, cracking heads in tough bars from Pendle to Perth.

But it was when he used his head to switch to brain-power that he really found his true strength.

Now the ex Burnley amateur boxer is feeling just champion - having gained his PhD degree in Sociology at Lancaster University.

Now the 11-plus failure is Dr Jeffrey Slater!

Jeff, 40, of Wood Hey Farm, Worsthorne, drew heavily on personal experience to produce the work which gave him his doctorate after eight years of part time study.

His work on "Violence in Working Class Culture" will be the basis of a book he hopes will be published next year. He will receive his PhD from Princess Alexandra later this year.

"It has been a long hard road, but worth every minute," says bachelor Jeff.

"My early education at Barden secondary school was rubbish," he says.

"You were told you were a failure and you learned to accept failure."

At 18, he travelled to Australia, working in a foundry in the daytime and training and boxing during the evenings.

Two years later he got a job as a bouncer in a tough Perth bar, frequented by gold and mineral miners, who descended from the hills after three months of solid working.

"My job was to stop them beating each other up - which they frequently attempted to do."

He returned to England in 1977 and with five GCE "O " levels took a one-year "A" level evening course at Burnley college which qualified him for entrance to Bradford University.

He gained a BA (Hons) degree in social psychology in 1983.

Two years later he earned a Master of Science degree, also at Bradford.

Violence, his PhD subject, is meaningful, he says.

"It is the only way for many people to get respect in life," he adds.

"I could write a book about it - in fact I think I will."

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