u3a New Zealand is a united community based organization that began in France in the 1973 and came to New Zealand in 1989. Today there are now close to 90 u3a branches throughout New Zealand.
The purpose of U3A is to:
- Encourage those nearing retirement, semi or fully retired to keep their minds active through lifelong learning in the third stage of their life journey.
- Provide a venue for those people to come together in their local community with like minded individuals to learn about new subjects, share knowledge and make new friends at monthly meetings.
- Tap into the great reservoir of knowledge, skills and experience of members while participating in a large number of interest groups on offer over different days in a month.
Main Meetings
- Held on a regular basis, monthly.
- Learn from invited speakers who are leaders in their field of expertise.
- Refreshments are provided with the opportunity to socialise, laugh together and live in the moment.
Interest Groups
- Each branch offers a number of Interest Groups held on different days throughout a month.
- Examples of Interest Groups are: Art for Fun, Inventors, Archaeology, Medical Science, Modern History, Literature, Music, Movies, Gardening, Travel, Walking, Mahjong, Theatre, Eating Out (Lunch or Dinner), etc
- For Interest Group focused on Learning, members develop an annual programme for members to research and make a short presentation to the group. Members are supported in organising their presentation as required.
- For Interest Groups that are Social and Activity based, whilst they can still offer opportunities for learning they are more participation based, so presentations aren’t part of their monthly programme.
For more information on branches throughout New Zealand, go to:
