Izaskun Oyarzábal, Magí Valls, Mercè Armiñana and Ramón Roca are retired and studying at the university. And it is that more and more Spanish universities offer programs for seniors. The University of Experience at the UB, the University Program for Great People (PUGG) of the Facultat Pere Tarrés and the Campus of Experience at the UIC are some examples of this.
These four university students over the age of 60 agree that, at their age, it is very easy to get careless and spoil themselves, so incorporating classes into their routine helps them stay active, both physically and mentally. In addition to giving them a great social life. In fact, many take the opportunity to go after class to have a beer and a tapa with their classmates.
For some it is their first university experience, for others, on the other hand, going back to class is like getting into a time box full of memories. But what is clear is that, for everyone, it is a space in which they not only acquire knowledge, but also that these university programs for seniors have much more wealth: “The day you have class you wake up excited, you organize yourself knowing that for In the afternoon you have an important appointment at the university and you set aside some time to get ready and get around,” says Ramón, one of the senior university students.
Everyone feels very grateful to be able to attend these programs since, for them, devoting a part of their time to cultivate their intellect is a motivation and a joy, especially for those who had never studied at a university before.
Ramón Roca, at 63, has one thing very clear: “Learning is necessary to be active.” So necessary that neither he nor his wife will stop doing it until his body or his head prevents it. “We know that our studies have no employment application, but it is not what we are looking for. We study to improve the lives of the people around us”, he assures.
After sixteen years working at CaixaBank, Ramón became autonomous as a real estate developer and salesperson, but the last stage of his professional career was not easy: “I bought a Banesto franchise, but it didn’t go well and I, as the person in charge, suffered the consequences ”. This situation caused him to drop his blood pressure due to stress, so he voluntarily stopped working at the age of 56: “It was like buying time.”
Reyes, his wife, was retiring at that time, and she was the one who encouraged him to go back to studying. They are both united by a passion for culture and learning, and this “love for wisdom”, as he describes it, made them both consider the possibility of going to the University of Experience: “My wife told me that It was time to dedicate ourselves to living. When you retire, life gives you time and you have to take advantage of it”, and that’s how it was. They signed up together for the study program offered by the University of Barcelona for people over 55 years of age, and studied Philosophy in Badalona.
Ramón liked it so much that he left the University of Experience and enrolled in the degree with the “youngsters”, as he calls them. “I had a wonderful time, they treated me like one of the others and we even made paellas at my house. Thanks to them I got to know youth again”. Now Ramón laments that, from the University of Experience, they have removed the electives that they did with undergraduate students: “The young people are incredible, they have brutal intelligence and mentality and the older ones learned a lot from them, just like them from us”.
Studying at those ages does not open doors to the labor market, but Ramón, who began the Gastronomy program after studying Philosophy, is clear that “it is a good way to keep physical and mental health in shape.” “The day you have class you wake up excited, you organize yourself knowing that in the afternoon you have an important appointment at the university and you set aside some time to get ready and move around”, he explains with a smile. That alone makes it worth it, because for Ramón “the secret lies in interest, desire and attitude, not in having a great memory.” After all, all kinds of people come together at the University of Experience, it is not necessary to have previously completed a university degree. As Ramón assures, the most important thing is that this program gives you the joy of belonging to a group and the opportunity to share your daily chores: “For us this is life and youth”.
“When I retired, I promised myself that I would not spend entire days sitting in front of a television.” And, indeed, Magí Valls found, at the University of Experience, a way to stay active in his day-to-day life: “I retired in 2009 and two years passed until I signed up for this program to study again, I didn’t start before because I didn’t know him.”
Magí had a journalist grandfather and, although he is a doctor by profession – he worked for 34 years at the Bellvitge Hospital as a gynecologist – he inherited his passion for books and literature from his grandfather. When he retired, he saw the perfect opportunity to do that for which he never had time, to read: “I would leave home to go to the hospital at half past seven in the morning and, at the end of my day there, I would go directly to the private practice . I got home between eight and nine at night every day.” Of course, after such a full working day, Magí would come home without the strength to be able to enjoy a book: “If I read something, it was medicine, because doctors have to be up-to-date, but nothing more because I would arrive exhausted, so I never had time to read literature.
It is clear that one of the things that Magí likes to do the most is to learn and keep her mind active: “The first thing I did was Language and Literature at the University of Experience, then I enrolled in the School of Writing at the Ateneo and for the last three years I have been doing Humanities, also at the University of Experience”. Now, at just 79 years old, she has enrolled to study Libraries, books and writings in history: “I go with a very open mind, we’ll see what they teach us, but you always learn a lot.”
And who knows, maybe he still has a few years to learn: “I don’t know what I’ll do next year because I’m getting old, but if I’m fit and my wife leaves me, I’ll sign up for something else.” And, although his latest movement has caused some controversy at home – “the library program is Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and I go to look for a grandson on Tuesdays and two other Thursdays, but now I no longer go to being able to go because I have class and they are going to have to look for life”–, what Magí is very clear about studying gives her a lot of knowledge, gives her friends, makes her leave the house and helps her feed her concerns: “At these ages It is studied for pure pleasure”.
Mercè Armiñana is 67 years old and it has been six years since she retired. Until now, she had never studied at the university, but after working for 42 years at Smith
For Mercè, time stopped when retirement arrived. At that moment, she realized that it was essential for her to find something to keep her busy days, and starting to go to classes at the university was a complete success.
And it is clear that studying at these ages brings great benefits to social and mental life, but not only that, it also helps you keep up to date with the latest issues: “You don’t fall behind in anything. At the university they give us very good tools that allow us to have much more criteria when dealing with political or current affairs”. Apart from the fact that, according to Mercè, the benefit also translates into greater psychological well-being: “It takes away sadness, isolation and loneliness. Learning not only stimulates you intellectually, but also emotionally. I feel much happier when I know new things”.
Like the rest, Mercè also believes that one of the best things about these programs is being able to share a class with the youngest and realize that we are concerned about different things: “Talking with them, I have learned that they are afraid of losing their parents, their grandparents, they are afraid of the disease… But we make them see that we are no longer afraid of that, but rather of loneliness, that they do not remember us, that they leave us alone… In this phase of life we ??do not we intend to avoid the inevitable, but to live in the best possible way”. And there is nothing like being able to continue cultivating yourself, learning and striving to be better every day, “it’s the least we owe to ourselves,” says Mercè, who feels that life has given her the opportunity to do something she couldn’t do in his day: “The university has opened a very beautiful stage in my life just at the moment in which everything supposedly closes.”
Izaskun Oyarzábal is the second in a family of seven siblings and, despite the fact that her parents encouraged all of them to pursue university studies, she and her sisters never did: “My sisters were not interested in studying. We lived in a different time, in which few women went to college. They wanted to get married, have children and be housewives. Izaskun, however, had other aspirations: “I wanted to see the world and learn languages.”
For this reason, after finishing school, she went to London and later to Italy: “Back then you didn’t travel, but I went to Italy with a friend. We put an ad in the Corriere della Sera and worked for a few months in Italy taking care of children and teaching them English and Spanish. It was the way we had to finance our trips.” After the adventure, Izaskun returned to Spain and began working as a management secretary at a paper company in Catalonia, where she put down roots: “I married the director of the company and continued working there until I retired at the age of 68 . Then I became a widow and remarried the man who is now my husband.”
Upon retiring, Izaskun, as restless as ever, was trying different ways to occupy her time: “At first I started doing manual labor and I made canvas, puto cruz cushion covers for all my friends.” But that was not enough and, thanks to a friend, he found out about the Pere Tarrés Faculty’s University Program for Great People: “At first it gave me a bit of respect because I had never been to university, but then it was wonderfully. At 79 years old, I have passed the 18 credits that are required of you”. In addition, this program is very comfortable for her now that she has to spend more time caring for her husband: “He has a bit of Alzheimer’s and taking care of him is my priority, so now I adapt the amount of material to the time I have.”
These years of study have been a success: “It helps me to understand today’s society, or at least to try to understand it. Now I have much more knowledge than when I started college.” And it is that, during this time in which Izaskun has been attending class, her love for wisdom and knowledge has grown bigger and bigger and she feels grateful for it: “I feel that I am a better person since my time in the university. I worry more about others, about society issues, it creates concerns in me… This is the life we ??have to live now and this opportunity is wonderful”.
