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2012/2013 term draws to close at 'open university' for adults

uom tardor2013

This afternoon will see the end of term and delivery of certificates for the 47 students who attended Formentera's Universitat Oberta (open university) for the elderly during the 2012/2013 academic year.

In attendance will be the Formentera Island Council's councilor of Social Welfare, Dolores Fernández; director of La Caixa – Sant Ferran, Josep Verdera; and the director of the Universitat Oberta de les Illes Balears, Joana Maria Seguí Pons, who, among other charges, oversees the school's programme for aged students – Universitat Oberta per Majors (UOM) – and is professor of Geography at the UIB. Executive members of the Sant Francesc Retirees Club (Club de Jubilats) will also be present at the event.

All of the Universitat Oberta's activities on Formentera were held afternoons at the Sant Francesc locale for retirees. The programme included:

31/05/2013: Opening. “Ageing: sleeping poorly or just differently?” Speaker: Dr. Antoni Gamundi, tenured professor of Biology at UIB.

21/06/2013: “Physical activity and the elderly: a healthy pair”. Speaker: Mrs. Maria José Torres Planells, graduate in Sports and Physical Education and master in Psychology of Sport and Sports Training.

20/09/2013: “Neurogastronomy: eating with our brain”. Speaker: Doctor Maria Cristina Nicolau Llobera, professor of Biology at the UIB.

11/10/2013: “Stress and health”. Speaker: Francisco Javier Serapio, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist.

25/10/2013: “Recipes from traditional Formentera cuisine”, Antoni Mayans (chef of Vogamarí restaurant, Formentera).

15/11/2013: “Benefits of breathing for relaxation. Learning to breathe”. Speaker: Carmen Ortiz, psychologist and nurse at Centre de Salut (Health Centre) de Vila, associate professor at the UIB.

The goal of the programme is to increase participation at the UIB among the elderly; make continuing education a possibility for adults at any point in their life; create a society based on authentic knowledge and learning; raise the educational level of this segment of the population; contribute to active ageing and improve quality of life among the aged, boost intergenerational communication, and continue fomenting the role of elderly students in higher education to serve as a model for the elderly and for our society at large.

UIB Eivissa having served for ten years as the only educational resource for aged adults in the Balearics, 2009 saw the first round of classes to be offered to the population of Formentera. High demand and a positive response to the courses in Formentera helped secure a fixed educational programme on the island. Until then the only educational centre that had served this portion of the population had been the UOM Eivissa.

UOM programme in the Balearic Islands
In 1998 the UIB started the open university for the aged programme, the objective being to establish an educational resource for that portion of the population which was based on a paradigm of lifelong learning. The project has not only effected learning among the aged; it has improved all measures of quality of life. Since its start in 1998, the UOM has built a name for itself on the strength of its projects, student body and social outreach work.

The UOM serves adults over 55 and adults in pre-retirement who, with a minimum educational experience of primary school, are interested in completing some of the programmes and activities on offer at the different UIB campuses, municipal university centres, and other sites across the island.

UOM is a dynamic project that, beyond offering students official accreditation, also grants them access to an array of new educational spaces: the first, christened Nous Projectes (New Projects), is a space to programme new events and activities, ever improving and better adapted to the demands of the student body and the principles of the university's continuing education programme. The second, a new space for the International Programmes department and the recent addition of the International Summer Campus for the Aged programme. The goal behind the International Summer Campus is to put the education, culture and society of Europe within the reach of aged adults at any participating university across Europe.