Examples:

He brought the perspective of someone who is educated in the university of life.

I didn't have the benefit of a great education as a young man, but the university of life and travel through golf has been an incredible thing for me.

Having graduated from the university of life through his extensive travels, Martin, a self made man, must be rated among the most successful business people ever to come from the heather county.

She didn't go into higher education, leaving school at 16, but says, with a wink that acknowledges she recognises the cliche, that she attended the university of life.

By education he means at the university of life as well as Le Havre University, where he got his degree in mathematics, giving himself a safety net in case he does tumble from the current pedestal.

But electoral snobbery cannot be solely to blame: Cambridge has done no better of late than redbrick institutions or the university of life.

I know the air is pretty rarified in academia, but has the good professor considered taking an evening course in the university of life?

I came into this business without any formal qualification, other than my training in the university of life.