The speech of Madame Catherine Vautrin
Minister for Social Cohesion & Equality

I am particularly happy to be able to make a contribution to this 23rd AIUTA Congress. Both from the point of view of my ministerial responsibilities, past and present, and as an active politician here in Rheims for more than 25 years.

The IUTL (University Institute of Free Time), as it is called here, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Its growth has been remarkable. Professor Patrick Demouy gave you an account of its development and current success this morning; 4000 members, more than 7000 hours of classes, countless subjects taught, 16 centres set up in the main tjwns of the Champagne-Ardenne region.

My governmental responsibilities have also led me to take an interest in the Universities of the Third Age and that for two reasons: when as Secretary of State I was responsible for Older People, I became particulary aware of the issues of our ageing population and of the role in society that could and should be played by a booming third age in fine form.

Today with responsibility for social cohesion in our country and particularly keen to maintain the solidarity of the generations, it seems to me that your universities are a significant means by which senior citizens can remain active in our society and in close touch with other age-groups, younger or older.

Just like the Champagne-Ardenne UTA, AIUTA is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

The first of these universities was set up in 1973, in Toulouse, by a visionary, Pierre Vellas, at a point in time when life expectancy in the developed countries was increasing at a spectacular rate.

Since then, longevity has not stopped increasing at a striking rate as shown by the fact that in France we are adding an extra year of life every four years.

It is not just this anthropological revolution but also the rapid increase in knowledge in every field which is sweeping away our notions of the ages of life and of the very way in which our lives are spent.

A new stage of life has appeared, called 'the third age' and this is already being overtaken by a 'fourth'. This intermediate age, no longer fully active but still in full possession of intellectual and physical faculties, required the aevelopment of new motivating and fulfilling activities.

Pierre Vellas had perfectly grasped this when he set up these unusual universities, designed to provide a specific public with a programme of activities which took account of the lives, needs and aspirations appropriate to this stage of life.

So the University of the Third Age is both a traditional university with its formal lectures, study and acquisition of knowledge and a sort of club offering various activities; recreational, cultural, physical and sporting.

This model rapidly spread through the whole world, attesting to the rightness of Pierre Vellas's original idea.

The fact that you held your last Congress in China, in Shanghai, in 2004, is evidence of this worldwide growth.

I am delighted at this success. It shows how keen older peole are to continue being involved in and influencing today's world.

AIUTA's 30th anniversary is an opportunity to draw up a first account of the worldwide rise of the universities of the third age and to consider their prospects for the future.

Several thoughts occur to me in this connection and they all point towards the continued development of the universities of the third age and their encouragement by the authorities.

1. The first of these relates to the demographic development of the population and the upheaval in the stages of life.

More or less all over the world populations are ageing and the proportion of older people is rapidly increasing.

In France the proportion of people in the population over the age of 60 has gone from 18% in 1962 to more than 21% in 1999.
It will reach 27% in 2020 and almost 33% in 2040,or a third of the population.

This ageing process can be accounted for to a great extent by increasing longevity which can be observed without exception in all the developed and developing nations.

In Europe between 1960 and 1995 average life expectancy increased by 6,4 years for men and by 7.7 years for women.

In 1750, a woman or a man of 64 still had 10 years to live; today that expectation is for women of 77 or older and for men of 72 or older. What's more, it's not only that we are living longer but we remain in good health at an ever increasing age.Since 1980 life expectancy with disability has increased at a faster rate than life expectancy itself.To be 70 years old today is equivalent to being 60 in the 1930s.

The expansion of universities of the third age is a good illustration of this revolution in life span.

It requires us to completely revise our thinking about the stages of life.

Indeed, we are still trapped in outmoded thinking which lead us, for example, to associate retirement with the beginnings of old age.

In the same way, the pivotal ages which are fixed in our minds and which determine many of our collective practices, will no longer be applicable. 60 no longer marks the beginning of old age: at that age we're no longer worn out nor weary.

All those extra years of life must enable us to develop and to play a role, particularly in community life.

Each one of us must be able to continue being involved in the life of society. Which gives rise to the need both to allow those wishing to continue in employment to do so and to more effectively develop voluntary work and a type of involvement other than that based strictly on the standard contract of employment.

Access to knowledge is obviously an essential condition for those wishing to continue participating in economic and community life.
By adding to each person's development and participation in community life, knowledge enhances community life, as well as the dynamism and cohesion of our society.

-- I am also thinking about women.

Many of them have had lacked the opportunity to study or to do the things they wanted. There was a time, not so long ago, when they were prevented from entering higher education. Even today, cultural restrictions lead them in the direction of less interesting or less advanced courses of study.

For many of them, your universities provide an opportunity at last for them to have access to knowledge and to the study of subjects of their own choice.

II. The second factor which militates in favour of the universities of the 3rd Age is the need to reinforce the bond between the generations.

In the past the generations followed one another without meeting: at the beginning of the 18th century, a child would have lost both parents by the time he reached 30.

Today, the generations overlap each other more and more: it is no longer a rare occurrence for there to be simultaneously grand-parents, parents, children, grandchildren even great-grandchildren.

To be 60 is no longer the end of the line but a vital central point between the generations.

When 60 year olds still have their parents to look after and, at the same time, their grandchildren to care for and to help educate, we can see that they are no longer the idle and retired people which we still like to think of, but a generation at the fulcrum of major family and social responsibility. So we need to re-evaluate all the links between the generations.

This simultaneous co-existence of several generations gives the elderly a vital role in terms of education and the transmission of knowledge and life-skills.

While the focus on youth tends to encase our children in protective bubble making their transition to adulthood all the more difficult, the elderly have a crucial role in helping them grow and effect this complicated transition.

So it is up to us therefore to encourage all forms of learning, in the university as at work.

By keeping in step with the way society is moving thanks to your universities and by keeping active intellectually and updating their knowledge in every field, third agers are capable of providing this support and making this essential transfer.

III A third factor which makes essential the development of universities of the third age is the constant renewal of knowledge in every field.

Humans have made more discoveries in fifty years than in all the previous centuries put together.

This accelerated renewal has fundamentally changed our way of life - you only have to look at the role played by the computer, the Internet and the mobile phone.

If we want senior citizens to be active participants in our society, then it is essential to allow them to continually bring their knowledge up to date.

This requirement is limited, however, by a view of the stages of life still based on economic criteria dating from the 19th century.

According to this view, life is broken up into separate compartmentalised periods; the learning period, then the productive period, and finally the period of rest which is one of nil contribution to society.

This view is outdated. The learning period is no longer confined to youth but nowadays is pursued throughout life.

Each of us must be able to acquire knowledge and new techniques in order to stay in tune with the way society is developing and to be able to contribute thought and personal influence.

Lifelong learning is not just for those directly involved in productive activity. It is for everyone at every stage of life.

From now on we are all permanent learners!

So it seems to me that those universities of the third age that are still isolated from the classic type of university programme are called upon to gradually integrate with a continuum of teaching offered to every generation and which each of us can call upon at every stage of life.

To sum up, if this Congress which is about looking back , is above all a Congress which looks to the future, then it needs to think about

• how to set up these universities
• how they should be funded
• how to combine teaching and leisure activities
• how to relate these universities to the classical model
• and how the international element of these universities should be organised with their number increasing at an accelerated rate.

We learn at every age. This proverb, found in every country and in every culture, has taken on an institutional reality thanks to the universities of the third age.
What great progress for humanity!

Each of us should be able to find a continuing place within our societies, not on the margins but at the center of things, in other words we should be of value.

It is my wish that the sharing of experience that you are going to take part in during this Congress will enable you to further this great and fine ideal: the universities of the third age, university for the whole of life.

Translated by S.H. Miller
May 2007