This article appeared in the Summer, 2005 issue of U3A News. LLIs may find this overview of the U3A movement in the UK interesting.

The recent U3A conference in Exeter left no doubt that U3A members are determined to have the UK movement represented at the international level in what is a worldwide federation of older people involved in continuing learning of all kinds.

U3A means different things to different people – with some 150,000 members that’s hardly surprising. For some, the local interest group – walking, French, bridge, music – is what U3A is all about. Many others combine these activities with participation in the monthly meetings, group leadership or committee work. Then there are those for whom no year is complete without joining in at a summer school or the annual conference.

The ripples of U3A activity encompass regional groups for study days or other joint activities with local U3As. At national and increasingly international level, U3A members are making their presence felt.

Did you know, for instance, that there are four of our own member U3As operating outside the UK? In Spain on the Costa de sol at Fuengirola and Marbella and on the Costa Brava, and in Cyprus, expatriates and colleagues of other nationalities join in English-speaking U3A activities. A UK model U3A is also organized by the University in Malta.

Contrary to popular mythology about the older generation and technology, U3A is well represented in the “wired” world of international communications. For many years, Peter Sinclair of Harrow U3A has maintained an extensive list of U3A web sites across the world, a source of information which I was able to pass to the president of the world federation, AIUTA, only recently.

At the recent AIUTA world congress in Shanghai, the UK U3A was much in evidence with a presentation of our model of learning being made by the chair of the Standing Committee for Education, Shirley Thew. Another international body, Third Age Learning International Studies (TALIS) has also benefited from U3A input with an invitation to a long-standing member of both organizations, Jean Thompson to contribute to a joint U3A-TALIS session.

The Canadian presidents of both TALIS and AIUTA, John Oussoren and Jean-Louis Levesque, had read the international U3A reports on our web site and were specially interested in Jean’s My U3A and World without Fear projects in partnership with a U3A in Russia.

Taking up where Phyllis Babb recently left off, Ian Searle is coordinating a number on on-line courses designed and tutored by UK U3A members and colleagues from Australia. In addition, a small but potentially significant project is off the ground to provide a “virtual” U3A for housebound or isolated colleagues.

So enthusiastic for international contact were members of a conference discussion group last summer that they have set up a web site specifically intended to favor such interchange between U3A members across frontiers. The http://worldu3a.org web site has already provided a home for several projects which have enabled exchange of experiences and views. The World Without Fear project, for example, which originated in Siberia, has brought about moving testimonies and lively discussion.

In previous issues you will have read of the important contribution the UK U3A is making to a European Community project designed to help introduce older learners to Information and Communications Technology. The eL.Se Project has major input from a UK team including Elaine and Mike Williams, Paul Baron and Len Street.

In the midst of all this 21st century activity, the more traditional approach to international contact has not been forgotten. Town twinning and individual enterprise have enabled groups from various U3As to exchange and come into personal contact with their counterparts abroad. Interest groups involved in language learning or in musical activities have been particularly active in this field.

At the national level., thanks particularly to Roger Cloet, Jean Thompson, Tom Holloway and Shirley Thew, the Third Age Trust – the national “umbrella” organization of UK U3As – has maintained and enhanced its involvement with AIUTA and helped to shape the way in which it takes account of different models of “older” learning.

Many questions are thrown up by these various international activities. What are the benefits? What cost in involved and can it be justified? Are there better alternatives? The National Executive is considering all these matters, but ultimately their decisions, hopefully endorsed by the membership, will take into account the fact that an organization such as ours has much to contribute to and gain from international involvement.