PAUL LANDA was 90 when he took his criminal justice exam, revising in the library with the help of undergraduates 71 years his junior. Now 92, he is still studying though not, currently, for exams. George Goroff, 79, revels in the chance to learn about music, attending concerts most weeks, and classes on jazz and musical comedy.
Marge Gruverman, 69, was a little taken aback when, as she repeatedly apologised for a watercolour painting that she felt was substandard despite the acclaim of her art-student classmates, one told her: “Just say ‘thank you’.” It was a directness she would not have encountered in her peers.
What these three have done is something simple yet revolutionary: they have retired to university. They have moved on to the campus of Lasell College on the outskirts of Boston.
There are about 60 university-linked retirement communities across the United States. The first were homes for academics who, after a lifetime on campus, did not want to be forced out when they retired.
Some communities are open to anyone over a certain age, while others require residents to have taught or studied at the linked university. Some are on campus, others up to 20 miles away. Some offer little more than any retirement home for like-minded people in a pleasant town, others are vigorous places with myriad opportunities to learn and to meet others of all ages. Some will take care of residents however infirm they become, others offer places only to those who can live independently.
Only one, however — Lasell Village at Lasell College — requires its residents to study. Local planners refused to allow the development unless it was an educational establishment, so everyone moving in has to sign a legally binding form agreeing to do 450 hours of “learning activity” a year — the same as an average undergraduate — unless they become physically or mentally incapable. Residents need not sit exams unless they want to, though.
“We were not sure whether 450 hours was a reasonable target, but in fact our residents achieve between 500 and 600 hours a year,” says Dr Paula Panchuck, the Lasell Village dean. “Our oldest resident is 97 and still studying. We have had residents move into our nursing facility because they can no longer look after themselves, yet they still participate in classes and lectures because they enjoy them. On any given day, our participation rate is 90 per cent.
“People move in and we get calls from their kids saying ‘I can’t get hold of my parents, are they OK?’ and it’s because they are out taking classes, attending lectures, going to concerts.”
As well as attending formal classes at Lasell Village or alongside undergraduates at Lasell College, many residents teach or mentor students, help them with projects on recent history or healthcare, play the part of the jury in mock trials at the law faculty, go on visits to museums, concerts and art galleries, and work out in the gym.
“It’s good for the students to see people who don’t have to study doing it for the sheer joy of learning,” says Panchuck. “When they’re ploughing their way through a degree the joy can go out of the window.
“The residents say that contact with the students is a wonderful way to stay connected with what is happening and to leave a legacy of ideas, passing on what they know to a generation who will carry it forward. They love the colourfulness of the young people. It’s wonderful not to have a biological connection to someone with body piercings or a whole variety of hair colours.”
As you might expect, the residents, average age 83, are highly educated, well motivated and affluent. About 80 per cent have one or more degrees, and they pay up to £425,000 for an apartment. They also pay monthly fees of between £1,355 and £2,825 to cover a cooked meal, cleaning, education, transport and nursing care if needed. Two couples have had to leave since Lasell Village opened four years ago, because the downturn in the stockmarket left them short of cash.
Residents of other university-linked retirement villages speak equally highly of their homes. The Academy Village is 20 miles from the University of Arizona campus but closely tied to it. University lecturers run weekly courses on subjects such as biotechnology, genetic therapy and advances in medical research, while others look at US literature or geopolitics.
A number of retired academics at the village have unpaid posts at the university, where they continue to do research and advise students. Mary Lee Baranger, 74, who lives there says: “Do you remember first arriving at college, where you were newly and totally free to do what you wanted: make friends, choose courses, join a folk dance group, go to lectures on subjects never offered in high school, stay up late for long talks or get up early for a walk in the hills?
“All the excitement of my freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley I rediscovered here at another stage of my life, freed not from high school and parents but from a job and lifelong routines.”
In Britain there is nothing so high-powered, though in the past six years some retirement communities with opportunities for high-quality learning have opened and the trend seems to be increasing.
At Hartrigg Oaks in York, where several retired lecturers are among the 250 residents, there is a programme of about 12 courses under the aegis of the University of the Third Age. Courses cover topics from the nature of matter and the Universe, supervised by a former physics lecturer, to conflict management, French and German, Scottish country dancing, theology, and how things work, by a former professor of mechanical engineering.
While we may have no sheltered housing on campuses, some pioneers do learn and live alongside students. One of them is Sir Oliver Popplewell, 77, who was forced to retire as a high court judge two years ago. He is studying for a degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford and lives in college, where he has a small study-bedroom and shares a kitchenette and bathroom with another “student”, a 65-year-old retired solicitor, also studying PPE.
Sir Oliver thoroughly approves of the American innovation. “It sounds an absolutely splendid idea, though in England colleges don’t have a lot of space to do it,” he says.
“Studying at my age is a wonderful thing. You feel you are doing something worthwhile, you meet a lot of interesting people, have marvellous lectures, it keeps you going for another three years. I think the tutors also enjoy it: we can contribute a certain amount to the discussion. One of our nice economics tutors, who is about 39, asked the other day: ‘What was it like in the Thatcher era?’ ”
Most UK retirement homes focus on practical rather than intellectual activities. At Ryfields Retirement Village in Warrington, for instance, residents are offered classes on how to use a computer, line dancing, ballroom dancing, t’ai chi, making greetings cards, glass painting and watercolours.
As in the American communities, success lies in offering like-minded people a way to relive the fun of university without the stress of unrequited love and finals.
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