What is a U3A and how does it work?

U3A stands for the University of the Third Age, which 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 -like those at Canvey, Benfleet , Hadleigh, Rayleigh (2) and Pitsea - and hundred's of othersd 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.
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.
The first U3As
It didn't take long before there were three big U3As. Cambridge U3A had a £20 annual fee, hundreds of members, and scores of interest groups. London was doing just as well, with a much smaller annual fee – just £4 – and a weekly Monday lecture. And Huddersfield had support from the local authority, hundreds of members, and a weekly dance.
The word spread fast. Often the national committee was contacted by a lone enthusiast, who would be advised to bring in a few others, enough for a small ad hoc committee. They were told to arrange an inaugural meeting and spread the word through the local press and radio and with posters in civic outlets, especially libraries.
Two early U3As started in Hertfordshire in 1983: Stevenage and Harpenden. In Somerset, a U3A in Yeovil affiliated to the national organisation on 22 October 1983. 1983 also saw the first U3A in Essex, at Saffron Walden. The first U3A in the London area apart from London U3A itself also started in 1983, in Merton. Devon was another early county, with Totnes and Barnstaple moving first.

How the U3A movement began