The travails of the University of the Third Age movement : a critical commentary

Abstract

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a proliferation of educational institutions catering exclusively to the learning needs and interests of older adults. The University of the Third Age, founded in 1973, has become one of the most successful institutions engaged in late-life learning. U3As can be loosely defined as socio-cultural centres where older persons acquire new knowledge of significant issues, or validate the knowledge which they already possess, in an agreeable milieu and in accordance with easy and acceptable methods. Its target audience are people in the third age of the life course – that is, a life phase «in which there is no longer employment and child-raising to commandeer time, and before morbidity enters to limit activity and mortality brings everything to a close.