Abstract
This chapter is aimed at describing the emergence, consolidation, and future prospects of the Universities of the Third Age (U3A) in Spain. It examines the historical, social, and conceptual grounds on which the U3A appeared and developed. It highlights the dual nature of U3A in Spain, where a bottom-up model (university classrooms), based on lecture series organised by older people associations, coexists with a more top-down and academic approach (universities of experience), in which universities organise and offer degree-like programmes tailored to older students. The chapter also summarises the main research studies focusing on the U3A movement in Spain. Such research demonstrated how U3As tended to attract relatively young older students who are motivated to enrol expressive rather than instrumental motives and have a significant impact on the members’ quality of life, well-being, personal growth, social support, and subjective health status. U3A members also tend to express high satisfaction with the diverse organisational, academic, and teaching aspects of the learning programmes. The challenges and opportunities for the development and further extension of U3A in Spain are also presented and discussed.
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Villar, F. (2019). From University Extension Classrooms to Universities of Experience: The University of the Third Age in Spain. In: Formosa, M. (eds) The University of the Third Age and Active Ageing. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21515-6_10
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