The U3A or University of the Third Age, which now provides courses to as many as 350,000 pensioners, doesn’t look anything like the model of a modern university. It costs almost nothing to attend and does nothing for your prospects of future employment. There may be other universities that do as little to enhance the economic value of their students, but they don’t boast about it, whereas U3A is designed for people who – unlike humanities graduates – have no need to earn money later in their lives.
It neither gives nor recognises any qualifications. Some of the teachers may be weighed down with doctorates but there’s no demand for any qualifications. Its students come there for the delight of learning alongside other people driven by the same need.
There is no campus; each local group is independent, and the administrators are not paid. If there is research it is not evaluated. No one has to pretend that it adds anything at all to Britain’s economic competitiveness. It has no place in league tables and the fees come to less than the participants might spend on coffee. The price of attendance is time and commitment. No wonder it is growing: the U3A is, in some senses, the only real university left in Britain.
