FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the Third Age?

A description of the stage of one's life reached after the First Age of childhood and dependence and the Second Age of working life and home-making. The Third Age is sometimes called the age of active retirement. For many, it is the age of achieving one's maximum potential after the stresses of the Second Age are past.

Why a University of the Third Age?

U3As think of themselves as being universities in the original sense of the term - communities of people who come together to learn from one another - rather than as degree-granting institutions; and so

A U3A is a learning co-operative of older people. It encourages positive ageing by enabling its members to share many educational, creative and leisure activities.

Who can join a U3A?

Being in your Third Age is the only criterion needed to become a member. No educational qualifications are required. There are no examinations to be taken or certificates to be obtained.

How does a U3A operate?

By drawing upon the skills and interests of its members. U3As tap the huge resource of skills and experience which exists among Third-Age people and which is largely ignored in the wider community.

Among the members of a U3A you will always find some who are willing to share their knowledge with others by acting as course leaders or tutors. These members will be leaders in some classes and learners in others. Other members will be willing to assist in the administration of their U3A.

What does it all cost?

All these course leaders and committee people give their time to their U3As voluntarily. Being a mutual self-help organisation, the costs of running a U3A are kept very low. For Warrnambool, the annual membership subscription is only $15 and for this, members can enrol in as many courses as they like.

Where did U3A's originate ?

The first University of the Third Age was founded in Toulouse, France, in 1972 to improve the quality of life for older people by bringing them into contact with academic programmes run by the University. The idea spread rapidly in France, with many universities either absorbing older people into existing academic programmes or setting up courses especially for third-agers. By this time the nomenclature of the Third Age as being the age of "active retirement" following the first two ages of youth and of work and homemaking, had become well established. The success of the French experiment led to the rapid spread of U3A's to many other countries, particularly in continental Europe. An International Association of U3A's was established by 1975. It has gained recognition from such bodies as the UN and UNESCO.

In July 1981, the U3A concept was introduced to Britain through a group based at Cambridge University. In contrast to the French practice, the British U3A's quickly evolved away from the model based on courses provided by a university. Instead they adopted the idea of a self-help or mutual-aid organisation - a kind of intellectual democracy in which there would be no distinction between teachers and taught. There would only be members of U3A, who would all be encouraged to participate, either by teaching, by learning or by assisting with planning and administration.

This self-help approach reduces the need for dependence on outside resources and in a way, harks back to the original concept of a "community of scholars" - the medieval origin of a university. Hence the broad acceptance of the term "University" in the titiles of so many of these groups, describing a community in which learning is an end in itself, where individuals learn what they like, at the pace they prefer, and where no qualifications are needed to enter and none are awarded.

In the latter part of 1984, the first Australian U3A's were formed in Melbourne, based on the British rather than on the original French model. U3A's were soon successfully established throughout Victoria and the movement quickly spread to the rest of Australia. Within five years there were U3A's in every State and Territory. Conditions in this countrry have favoured their continued development as voluntary, self-help organisations.