UNIVERSITY Of THE THIRD AGE (U3A)

The U3A is a self-help organisation for people no longer in full time employment providing educational, creative and leisure opportunities in a friendly environment. It consists of local U3As all over the UK, which are charities in their own right and are run entirely by volunteers. Local U3As are learning cooperatives which draw upon the knowledge, experience and skills of their own members to organise and provide interest groups in accordance with the wishes of the membership. The teachers learn and the learners teach. Between them U3As offer the chance to study over 300 different subjects in such fields as art, languages, music, history, life sciences, philosophy, computing, crafts, photography and walking. A typical U3A has about 250 members but could be as small as 12 and as large as 2000.

Gosport U3A started in 1995 with about ten or twelve people meeting twice a month at St Vincent’s College including Mary Patchett and Pat Wharton, the Founders. Both were general interest meetings usually with a speaker. There were no interest groups or programme at that time. In 1996 Margaret Rowley was elected secretary, a position she held until 2008 when she resigned owing to illness. At the AGM that year it was decided to offer seven groups and a Coffee morning was held at Gosport library to attract anyone interested in joining U3A. Some 25 people joined and Gosport U3A has flourished ever since and now has about 200 members offering 39 different groups some of which are split into two or three groups to cope with popular demand. There are two history groups for example and three scrabble groups.

The U3A approach to learning is – learning for pleasure. There is no accreditation or validation and there are no assessments or qualifications to be gained.

Sponsored by: National Lottery : Gosport Borough Council

[HOME] [About Us] [News] [Music] [Useful links] [Contact us] [Constitution] [Photo album]