u3a is one of the largest member organisations in the UK today and boasts about 400,000 members. u3a originally stood for University of the Third Age and is the old name. We are now simply u3a.
u3a is self-funded and provides opportunities for people who are no longer working full-time to come together to learn, volunteer, continue their interests and take up new pursuits. This ‘positive ageing in action’ sends an important message to the wider community that later life can be a time of possibility and growth.
U3a originated in France in 1973 and is now an international movement. It is operational across all five continents and has a presence in about 50 countries. Since its beginnings in 1981, the UK u3a movement (based loosely on the French model) has aimed to encourage groups of people in their ‘third age’ to come together and continue their enjoyment of learning in subjects of interest to them. This is a time in your life when you have the opportunity to undertake learning for its own sake. There is no minimum age, but there is a focus on people who are no longer in full-time employment.
The national u3a says, "Our founders envisaged a collaborative approach with peers learning from each other… There would be no distinction between the learners and the teachers – everyone could take a turn at being both if they wished."
The u3a movement is non-religious and non-political and has three main principles that u3a groups and their members nationwide are expected to uphold. They include the Third Age Principle, the Self-help Learning Principle and the Mutual Aid Principle. Read more here.
The principles set out the ethos of the u3a – the focus on lifelong learning for retired and semi-retired people; self-help, with members sharing knowledge and skills; and mutual aid, with each u3a being organisationally independent and self-funded but part of the wider u3a movement.
You can find out more about the national u3a here.