Currently, the increasing number of older populations worldwide brings about a new era of ageing with unprecedented demographic ramifications. To prolong the active life of older people and maintain the quality of life, Universities of the Third Age (U3As), as socio-cultural centres, have achieved an unequivocal success over the past decades and led to three major benefits: psychological wellbeing, social inclusion and empowerment for the older generation (p. 7).
Active ageing and lifelong learning have gained scholarly attention in recent years (e.g. Findsen and Formosa, Reference Findsen and Formosa2012). Integrating lifelong learning and active ageing, this book aims to examine U3As with an international perspective, thus to navigate the development of U3As in different economic, social and cultural contexts.
This timely and comprehensive book consists of 21 chapters, organised into four parts. Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) provides the background of U3As by explicating the interrelated relationship between ‘active ageing’ and ‘lifelong learning in later life’, and then reviews the origin and development of the U3As.
Part II (Chapters 3–11) and Part III (Chapters 12–20) present the context-specific designs and implementations of the U3A movement. Each chapter independently reports a U3A movement and underlines the historical development of policy framework, curriculum approach, student profile, opportunities and challenges, and the impact on the learners. These 18 chapters cover nine countries in Europe (i.e. United Kingdom (UK), Iceland, Italy, Germany, Malta, Poland, Russia, Spain and Sweden) and nine Asian-Pacific countries and regions (i.e. Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand).
Part IV (Chapter 21) closes the whole book and provides thoughts for further research on the U3A movement. It compares U3As in European and Asian-Pacific contexts and highlights the benefits for learners’ wellbeing. Suggestions for more accessible and inclusive U3As are also provided.
On balance, this book is horizon-broadening and thought-provoking. It showcases how U3As in different countries and areas encourage older people to join peers in physical, cognitive, expressive, creative and social accomplishments, contributing to active ageing. This is very insightful for readers from countries like China, where there is an increasingly larger ageing population, but various challenges in its U3A movement remain, as highlighted in Chapter 13. Beyond presenting the varied designs and implementations of U3As worldwide, this book also demonstrates the mission of all U3As, which is to integrate ‘lifelong learning’ into active ageing by enabling older people to engage in sharing knowledge, skills, interests and experiences; gain benefits and enjoyment; discover new horizons; and ultimately, applaud the capabilities, potential and social value of the older generation.
While the book is good in its current version, it might be more insightful if it addresses the following concerns. First, the U3A models reported in each region could have been re-arranged according to the types of organisation, i.e. institution-driven (also called the French model, e.g. France, Germany, Lebanon, Spain and Malta), member-driven (also called the British model, e.g. UK, Australia and New Zealand) and government-directed (e.g. mainland China and Taiwan). In this way, the merits and drawbacks of each type in each region could be directly highlighted and thus clearer implications for the development of U3As could be provided. Meanwhile, the coherence of this book could also have been improved. For example, we suggest the editor could have presented a more comprehensive picture by putting chapters on mainland China (Chapter 15), Hong Kong (Chapter 14) and Taiwan (Chapter 19) together, since these communities share a Chinese cultural lineage and face the challenge that older people constitute an increasingly significant proportion of the population (Chui, Reference Chui, Boulton-Lewis and Tam2012). Moreover, most studies provide an overview of the U3A movement. Only one study details the design for an empirical study (Chapter 7). As educational researchers, we would expect research beyond narrative account, but with empirical evidence.
Overall, this book focuses on the impact of U3As in active ageing in two prominent regions. By reporting independent studies in 18 countries and areas, it provides ‘a tapestry of research’ (p. ix) on a global scale. Given its wide-ranging and rich content, this book undoubtedly will appeal to scholars, researchers and practitioners in ageing research across multiple disciplines in different contexts, and engage them with critical issues regarding the U3A movement and lifelong learning, which will advance our understanding and support for the older generation groups.
