Origins and Development: The Francophone Model of Universities of the Third Age

Abstract

This chapter outlines the establishment of the very first University of the Third Age (U3A) in Toulouse in 1973, which offered a course on gerontology within the University of Toulouse’s Faculty of Social Sciences exclusively for persons who were above the then statutory retirement age. During the 2015–2016 academic year, lectures on languages generally attracted over 400 students. However, the themes of the lectures are quite diverse—including Tai chi, languages, and information and communication technology history, philosophy, art, religion, law, economics and natural sciences—and lasted 1.5 h, twice a week for 42 consecutive weeks in an academic year. In France, U3As are grouped within the French Association of Universities of the Third Age a non-profit organisation created in 1981 in Nancy. In 2018, UFUTA included 35 member organisations with 65,000 members. International cooperation is one of the U3A’s most important objectives, as the International Association of the Universities of the Third Age (AIUTA) brings together Universities of the Third Age from all continents around the world. AIUTA serves as a federation of U3As that includes national federations and other partner institutions representing U3As from various countries such as France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, the UK, Poland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Malta, Japan, Lebanon, Australia, Mauritius, Senegal, Singapore and Tunisia—among others.