Libertines’ Pete Doherty feels 'unequipped' as he lands unlikely job overseas

Pete Doherty dropped out of his own university degree but is set to become a professor - and admits he'll be 'strict'

Pete Doherty, 45, has opened up about his surprising career switch in a chat with Vernon Kay, 50.

The Libertines star appeared on Vernon’s BBC Sounds show Tracks of My Years on January 12, and revealed that he was stepping into academia as a lecturer, decades after dropping out of his own university degree. “I was asked by a French university, actually, to lecture - something to do with fame and social media - and I didn’t really feel I was equipped,” he told Vernon.

Despite his doubts, Pete revealed: “But I had already cashed the cheque, so I’m going to have to do something. I’ve got a year and a half to write four 45-minute essays, so I might have to get myself a phone. I’ll do my best to educate and entertain. But I’ll be strict with the coursework. Anyone listening who thinks it’s going to be a breeze doesn’t know Professor Doherty.”

Pete also opened up about why he dropped out of Queen Mary University in London, where he was studying English Literature, and failed to get a degree due to his disappointment with uni life. “I think I’d dreamt for so long - I felt I was going to give my whole life to books, to the written word,” he said.

“And then there sort of became this tussle between music and poetry and studying literature. But still I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make a go of it musically because I wasn’t really that good on the guitar.

“And then when I got to the university, I don’t know who I thought I was going to meet there - I thought I was going to meet all of these teenage versions of all the writers that I loved, Oscar Wilde and George Orwell - and then I found… I felt a bit disillusioned, people were there just to get the degree, and not to throw their lives into the hands of the mythology and literature, which for me was the dream.”

Pete’s career change comes amid his major lifestyle revamp, after he revealed last year that he had type 2 diabetes. In an interview with the Guardian’s Saturday magazine, he said: “I gave up the main poisons and my health improved.

“Then you get told alcohol and cheese and sugar are just as bad and you were healthier when you were on heroin.” Pete went on to call himself “a bit of a glutton,” adding, “It’s not a joke. I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. And at the moment I’m lacking the discipline to tackle cholesterol.”

Pete opened up more about his struggle with diabetes in the BBC's 'Louis Theroux Interviews' series. The star spoke about how his issues with drugs had impacted his health, but added that his diet was causing similar issues.

In one scene of the documentary, Pete started to cough while clutching his chest and groaning in pain. He explained: "You are looking at a very sick man. I've battered it, haven't I, I've f***ing caned it.

“The heroin and the crack... I surrendered to that, and then it was cocaine and the smoking and the alcohol, and now it's cheese and the saucisson, and the sugar in the tea."

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