Jimmy Carter awarded tenure at Emory University at age 94

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter has been granted tenure at Emory University in Atlanta at age 94.

The university announced on Monday that Carter earned the distinction after serving as University Distinguished Professor for the past 37 years.

He'll be the first tenured faculty member at Emory to hold a Nobel Prize and the first to have served as U.S. president.

A statement on the university's website says Carter used to quip during lectures that he had taught in every school of the university and published several books and articles, but hadn't been awarded tenure.

Tenure "essentially means a continuous post as professor," the statement says, a principal that helps preserve academic freedom.

Carter lives in Plains in southwestern Georgia. He became the longest-living U.S. president in history in March.