University of the Third Age
Keeping your brain, as well as your body, active is one of the secrets of a long and happy retirement. It’s also fun, as any of the 320,000+ members of the University of the Third Age up and down the country will tell you
The U3A provides learning opportunities for people in their third age – that is, who no longer work full time and are no longer responsible for the care of children. There is no specific age at which you become eligible to join
Its uniqueness lies, not in providing education, but in the sort of education it provides. Its members learn what they want, when they want to learn it. There are no set curricula, no qualifications, no quality control, and no inspections – none of the normal paraphernalia of education. There are very few teachers – the U3A relies on dedicated and enthusiastic group leaders instead
Some members disliked learning at school, feeling that dull facts were being crammed into them to enable them to pass exams and get jobs. But they return to education in their third age, and find they love it. They see their formal education as training or preparation for work, but the informal learning in the U3A is the exact opposite. U3A members are in charge of their own learning. They learn what they like, when they like
The founders were Michael Young (who also helped found the Open University), Cambridge don Peter Laslett, and Eric Midwinter, who at that time ran the Centre for Policy on Ageing. The U3A took off after an avalanche of letters followed an interview with Eric Midwinter on the radio programme You and Yours. The founders’ principle was that groups of people would get together to learn what interested them, and would have, not a teacher, but a group leader, who might not know any more than the others, but could co-ordinate their efforts
All the members are members of their own local U3A – there are more than 900 of them – and these local U3As, though affiliated to the national organisation, are entirely autonomous
Older peoples’ organisations are typically run by well-intentioned second agers, but in the U3A the members take all the decisions, locally and nationally. The U3A is one of the very few organisations for older people which is run democratically by older people themselves. Each U3A is run by a committee elected by its members, and the U3As collectively elect a national executive to run the national office, which provides backup help and services, and promotes understanding of informal adult learning
Individual members get carried away by new enthusasms they never had time for before. Susan Fifer became an expert family historian after she joined the Barnet U3A in north London, and has recently written a guide to researching family history, part of an Older and Wiser series of books published by Wiley in association with the U3A. But she also took up mah jong, table tennis, quilting, and joined a creative writing group and a book group. “I did think of joining the tap dancing group, but I thought: you have to call a halt sometime.” She likes the informality of U3A learning, the absence of targets. “It’s owned by us” she says. And then she had a new enthusiasm: on a whim, she bought a ukulele, and then found that several other members wanted to learn to play the instrument. So Barnet U3A now has two thriving ukulele groups
Estelle Bullough wanted to go to university when she was young, and study languages. But the family circumstances didn’t allow it – she left school at 17. Nearly forty years later she retired and took up languages again, through the U3A, which has been part of her life for the last 20 years. She has shown the real talent for languages which she always knew she had, learning German, French, Spanish and Italian. She also became the secretary of the Bradford U3A, and started learning in two other groups there – philosophy, and gardening. She has travelled a lot, so that she can use her languages
If you’re interested in joining there’s almost certainly a U3A near you. Contact details for your local U3A can be found at www.u3a.org.uk, or by telephoning the national office, 020 8466 6139.
