Record numbers of Swedish retirees are enrolling in a university run “by pensioners for pensioners” amid increased loneliness and a growing appetite for learning and in-person interactions.
Senioruniversitet, a national university that collaborates with Sweden’s adult education institution Folkuniversitetet, has about 30 independent branches around the country which run study circles, lecture series and university courses in subjects including languages, politics, medicine and architecture.
The Stockholm branch, which is Sweden’s largest, has become so popular since it was founded in 1991 that it is now run across multiple venues across the capital by about 100 volunteers. Its most popular event, the Tuesday lectures, gets about 1,000 people each week.
Recent Stockholm lectures have included “The art of awarding Nobel prizes” by a former member of a Nobel committee, “Disinformation and AI – the threat we invented ourselves” and “From soap to cultural heritage/canon and vice versa.”
Inga Sanner, chair of Senioruniversitetet in Stockholm, said membership nationally was at an all-time high. “We had a dip during the pandemic, of course, but we have come up again to the same number and increased even more. Our membership is the highest ever.”
In 2023 there were 2,099 events held across Sweden attended by 161,932 participants, according to Folkuniversitetet. This year, that number is projected to increase to 177,024 participants across 2,391 events.
Gunnar Danielsson, secretary general of Folkuniversitetet, said: “The desire to learn for pleasure’s sake, or for the sake of learning as such, is a joy to experience in a society which is increasingly obsessed with learning and education as preparation for work.”
The increasing popularity of Senioruniversitetet was not reflected by the level of government funding, though, he said, which had “significantly decreased” over the past few years. “More likely it reflects a desire to actually meet other people in real life rather than on the internet.”
Sanner, a retired history professor, said older people were “more and more alert” and that there is a “fantastic hunger for education”. She added: “It’s totally fascinating that there are so many who want to learn more and learn more about the world. It is so very needed in our time.”
The wider societal role that Senioruniversitetet plays is becoming increasingly important, she said, and the learning and wellbeing of its members has a knock-on effect to their families and beyond.
“It is to do with democracy issues and education. Senior citizens don’t live in a vacuum. If nothing else, it has an effect on children and grandchildren,” she said. “You are an example. Not just sitting rocking in a rocking chair, but you are out and want to learn more. Then you can share that with your grandchildren and children.”
She added: “The lectures are fantastic. You become completely fulfilled when you have been to an event and then it bubbles over when you meet others.”
For many of their volunteers, their office in central Stockholm is like a workplace. “It is very meaningful work, but also you have such a lovely time and meet others.”
Sanner said the demographic of its membership does, however, tend to be “too homogenous”, adding that they need to do more to extend their reach to a more diverse audience.
Susanne Abelin, 66, a former journalist from Norrtälje, near Stockholm, volunteers on the university’s newsletter and is learning Italian.
Ageism is rife in Sweden, she said, and palpable in day-to-day life. “You are seen more or less as an idiot. Maybe it’s because we have had it so materially well over generations that we don’t need each other so much – for good and for bad.”
But Senioruniversitetet, where over-55s can learn for a relatively low fee, is “a bit of the Swedish welfare system that is still left”.
Her Italian class has a WhatsApp group so they can stay in touch outside lessons and last year she went to Italy with one of her classmates. “I’m absolutely not fluent in Italian and will never be, but it is inspiring and it keeps your mind alert. Instead of doing crosswords and suduko you can study some verbs.”
Joachim Forsgren, 71, a former physician who now volunteers for the Stockholm branch, has given lectures on “man and drugs” and tuberculosis.
Volunteering, he said, gives people a “sense of meaning and that they are contributing still”. He added: “People can get the feeling that they are not contributing once they leave their jobs. Pensioners is a word I hate.”
By volunteering, he said, “we are contributing to some kind of democracy project. This is really trying, especially in this day and age, to get people interested in what is going on”. Amid the rise of online disinformation and populism, the university helps people to “look critically at the amount of information we are almost drowning in every day”.
