Development Of The Third Age University In Australia

Since the 1960s,with the increasing number of elderly people around the world,the aging trend has been irreversible and rapidly swept the world.The elderly group with complex social experience has become an important part of social participation.Both developed and developing countries have realized that how to help the elderly participate in social life and meet their increasingly diverse spiritual demands is the top priority in solving the aging problem.The third age university is the most successful institution engaged in elderly learning,an important channel to expand the coverage of lifelong education,and a physical space to give longevity quality and significance.The third age universities have gradually emerged different types of development models in the development process,among which the Australian third age universities following the "bottom-up" development model have their own characteristics.Therefore,this study takes Australia's third-age university as the research object,based on literature research,comparative research,case study,data analysis and other methods.This paper summarizes the reality of the development of Australia's third-age universities from a macro perspective,and focuses on the practical exploration of three Australian third-age universities from a micro perspective,so as to provide relevant thinking for the sustainable development of China's universities for the elderly.This study is divided into four parts.The first part is the basic theory.This part firstly defines the relevant concepts of third-age universities,and focuses on analyzing the connotation and characteristics of third-age universities.Secondly,it is pointed out that third-age universities can promote the democratization process of lifelong learning,break the social stereotypes of the elderly,improve the physical health of the elderly,guide learners to improve their psychological capital level,and help the elderly adapt to the role change.Finally,the paper summarizes the three development modes of the third-age universities,namely the "top-down" mode of government investment,the "bottom-up" mode of autonomy and mutual assistance,and the diversified mode.This part,as the theoretical basis of the paper,determines the logical starting point and expansion space of the follow-up research.The second part is the macro development analysis of Australia's third age universities.This part firstly introduces the origin background of the third age university in Australia.With the trend of continuous aging of the population,the continuous increase of the elderly workforce and the introduction of relevant old-age education policies,relevant institutions and projects that meet the learning needs of the elderly have spread rapidly throughout Australia.The third age university came into being and gradually developed into a successful organization which actively responded to the aging.After that,the paper carding status of development of the third age university in Australia,and finds that the third-age university in Australia follows the "bottom-up" development model and autonomous investment model,school scale continues to expand,the student number of steady growth,uphold the philosophy of mutual assistance and voluntary peer education,theory research and practice to explore synchronous operation.On this basis,the characteristics of Australia's third-age universities are further analyzed,and it is found that in the process of development,they present such characteristics as the effective integration of internal and external resources,the use of volunteers to save the cost of running a school,the construction of a campus combining the real with the virtual,and the matching of course supply and learning demand.Based on the analysis of the current situation and characteristics,it is found that the third age universities in Australia are faced with the practical dilemma that the self-governing development model is difficult to continue to expand and the self-financing model lacks stability.The third part is the case analysis of Australia's third age university.This section focuses on micro-focusing on the practical exploration of three Australian third-age uni versities(U3 A Melbourne City,U3A Sydney,U3 A Brisbane).The research found that the organizational goal of Australia's third-age universities is to provide a comfortable environment for the elderly,of course,each third-age university has its own unique organizational vision;the organization is a non-profit,registered membership group,the management committee composed of volunteers is responsible for maintaining the daily operation,which reflects the dual characteristics of autonomy and efficiency;the mode of fund input is"bottom up" autonomy,and the financing channels are mainly from the folk;the cost of learning is low,and the school treats learning for the elderly as a civic education,charging members only a small entrance fee;the teachers are set up by volunteers and organizational leaders who do not need strict access threshold to fully develop cognitive resources for the elderly;the curriculum follows the matching principle of education supply and learners' needs,provides various long-term and short-term courses according to the learning demands and interests of the elderly;the campus distribution adopts the method of multiple distribution sites,entity and virtual campus.On the basis of analyzing the practice of three Australian third-age universities,it is found that there are some practical limitations,such as students' participation in excluding minority groups,relatively closed teaching mode and centralization of geographical location.The fourth part is the enlightenment of the third age university development research in Australia.This part is mainly based on the main content of the previous chapters,combined with the reality of the construction of elder university in China,and analyzed the practical dilemma of the exploration which from the macro and micro levels,and put forward the following countermeasures for the sustainable development:the first is to strengthen the full coverage vision and expand the scope of participation;the second is to build a network resource system and multi-distribution entity campus;the third is to use the cognitive resources of the elderly to strengthen intergenerational communication;the fourth is to update the traditional teaching concept and enrich the content of the curriculum system;the fifth is the combination of theoretical research and practical development,and the research serves the practice.