Prof. Joseph Troisi is the head of the European Centre of Gerontology and Sociology Department at the University of Malta. He is also a founding member of the U3E which is the University of the Third Age in Malta.
“It was Peter Serracino Inglott who urged me to involve myself in the field of gerontology and I have since spent 20 years studying social gerontology.” Troisi points out. “I took on the role of U3E director to help educate not only the students who come to our courses but society in general.”
A problem which Troisi has often come across is that of ageism. This is age discrimination and one of its major forms is forced retirement.
Assemblies have been held with all South West Caucasian countries, Europe and North America in an attempt to discuss the issue of ageing, first raised by Nationalist minister (later President) Censu Tabone at the UN in Madrid in 1968.
“A plan of action was agreed upon and countries meet up often to see what different societies are doing to implement this plan to help people acknowledge that the elderly are not useless,” he says. “As a university, the U3E is focusing on the developmental aspect. Despite chronological age, the elderly still have an important role to play in society. Whether young or old, a person is first and foremost a human being. The only problem is that for most people, life begins at 60.”
Joseph Troisi says that people are usually given their lives back after working for more than half their life. After this, those entering the third age are not allowed or able to do many of the things they used to, and can find themselves becoming incredibly bored.
One successful offshoot has been the U3E pre-retirement training programme which started eight years ago. When a person retires, he or she has to adapt to a completely different style of living. People might feel as though they are losing a function in society.
“We are trying have older people play a stronger role in society based on two principles, the first being active ageing. This means active participation of older persons in society. The second is ageing and place, which means institutionalisation of the elderly only as the very last resort.”
The U3E in Malta was founded in 1992 as a result of two main streams. It all began in France in 1973 and was an academic affair with degrees and formal teaching. It was created to give people, especially women, of a certain age an opportunity to learn what they could not when they were younger. It was a great success for certain elitist groups and the idea spread to other countries.
Troisi says, “The British always want to be exclusive and wanted to start something special. They almost completely booted the idea of education to introduce social gatherings, remembering that old age is a form of social sickness.”
The British model was aimed more specifically at meeting people and socialising. It served an important purpose and Malta took this on board to intertwine it with the learning aspect.
“The U3E does not offer degrees because it is not job oriented but people attend because they want to learn new things. It serves as a way of combating loneliness but they also receive a certificate of participation to encourage people to attend. Some people attend all the units just for this certificate to show their friends and families. It allows them to prove that they are not a ‘waste’ which is often the attitude taken by society.”
Courses offered by the U3E cover every imaginable area. Some of these include languages, history, philosophy, political science and psychology. All courses are re-evaluated every year to constantly improve the courses and give students variety which is important to keep them interested.
Prof. Troisi says, “Courses are also suggested by the members themselves and they are very happy to suggest things to us. It has to be understood that when people retire, they have to live with their husbands and wives 24 hours a day and it is not easy for some people. This opportunity gives them something to do and talk about with their spouses.
We also have interest groups and I have to say that the aerobics class is rather fun to watch.”
Is it easy to teach people of the third age?
He smiles. “Surprisingly yes. They are not learning things by heart and it is precisely there to enrich the mind. We currently have 670 students and their confidence is definitely being given a boost. You rarely find any of them taking notes and they all want to share their experiences in some way throughout the lectures.”
The university is there to gain knowledge for knowledge’s sake since most of the people attending are too old to use their newly acquired knowledge for occupational reasons. There is annual fee of Lm5 for students and one condition is that people must be of 60 years of age and older. They are all free to go and free to leave whenever they please.
Troisi laughs and says, “Although they are free to leave, the first group was formed in 1993 and people from that group still attend lectures today. It is amazing because they make an effort to go four times a week for lectures.”
He wanted to start holding parent’s days but felt it probably would not be feasible although with people living longer, it could be that this will not be a thing of the past for long.
It is possible that the phrase “an old dog cannot learn new tricks" is being disproved by the current increase in numbers of elderly people taking the opportunity to enrich their knowledge even further. But it is time to stop thinking of old people as “old dogs”: stop ageism and start seeing the elderly as having as much capacity to help society as today’s youth.
Being a workaholic, I ask Prof. Troisi if he plans to join the U3E as a student and he laughs and shakes his head.
“I don’t plan on retiring. I find great satisfaction in my work which is a field without limits and without age. In a way you could say that I’m putting active ageing into practice.”