I was once asked to volunteer to teach a philosophy course for U3A. I had to turn down the request because of the excessive time involved in travelling to and from the venue, otherwise I would have been happy to do it. However, I later learned that even volunteer instructors were required to become fee-paying members of their U3A chapter. Since I had no interest in availing myself of their services I thought that policy was a bit much.
Hi,
this is quite new for me. Though I know more about the origines of U3A. I know that in some countries, or univerisities, participants were expected to pay for a (series of) lecture(s), but never that speakers had to be "members". Of what, actually?
It sound to me, as a corruption of the whole idea of free access to scholarly knowledge.
I guess this trend began with establishing the so-called U3A outside universities.
Best
Michal
Yes, In fact, I worked about 14 years as a principal in the Espoo Adult Education Institute. We had there also the 3.rd Age University for senior people.
I'm a member of u3a in England, where I think policy is different. We don't employ any paid teachers at all. Group Leaders are not teachers, they are already members of u3a. The emphasis is on 'shared learning', or 'learning together'. We only pay speaker fees and travel expenses on a one-off basis...and there is a limited budget for speakers. Speakers are not required to be members of u3a.
Hope this helps...
Thanks. The said U3A is not operative within our Educational system in Nigeria; but for the emergent of private Universities and other tertiary institutions, U3a could not be ruled out, however the U3A is aligned/synonymous with Adult Education/Continue Education as well as Out of School adult vocational training in Nigeria where facilitators were compensated for the time/work done
I should emphasize that I don't have a problem with U3A's use of unpaid instructors. I have great respect for and am supportive of pro bono volunteerism. Nor do I have a problem with people who make use of U3A's course offerings and other benefits having to pay a reasonable membership fee; the various U3A chapters do after all have overhead costs to cover. But I was taken aback by the idea that volunteer instructors or tutors should be required to pay U3A membership fees even when they make no use of U3A's services. Also, it likely works as a disincentive for potential volunteers.