The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) network of 124 Institutes based in American colleges and universities delivers lifelong learning programs for some 170,000 older adult learners. The OLLI network is supported by the Osher Foundation with a National Resource Center (NRC) for the Institutes located in Northwestern University, Chicago.

NRC undertakes research on the work of the Institutes, including annual surveys, and has forwarded to PASCAL the attached report on insights gained from the experience of Institutes. PASCAL developed the link with the Institutes and the NRC when we sent them last year the report of the PASCAL/PIMA SIG Report on Towards Good Active Ageing for All.

The OLLI network has adopted the concept of Age-friendly Institutes and notes that a growing number of universities are now members of the Age-friendly University (AFU) movement with ten principles set out in the OLLI report. The attached report gives substantial information on the participants of Osher Institutes, including attitudes to lifelong learning and preference for learning programs. Is sues identified in the report, such as finding new pathways towards inclusivity of diverse learners, have their counterparts in Australia so that there is much value in exchanges such as this.

The low participating groups identified in the OLLI report: men, non-white, non-university-educated, and rural older adults all have their counterparts in Australia. The OLLI Report finishes with a set of ten insights which have much in common with the ten principles of the Age-friendly University movement.

The PASCAL/PIMA report opened a number of important issues that require further analysis and some good ideas in addressing a number of significant barriers to the idea of lifelong learning so that exchanges such as this can contribute much in shaping such ideas. Most Australian States now have age-friendly policies but lifelong learning is seldom included in them.

Peter Kearns