About the u3a

The u3a was set up 40 years ago and is an organisation which welcomes people who have finished full time employment or raising a family, to join together to learn from each other and to enjoy social activities that are of common interest. U3a is a huge nationwide (and international) organisation much misunderstood - if known about at all!

The UK's u3as are split into geographical areas. Faringdon & District u3a is part of Thames Valley Network Region.

About Faringdon & District u3a

Faringdon u3a has been in existence since 2002 and currently
has about 450 members. We welcome members from Faringdon and the surrounding area.

We are first and foremost a social organisation, a collection of people who get together in Groups to do things they enjoy, whether that be going out for pub lunches, walking in the countryside or learning a language - whatever floats your boat!

The heart of u3a is the various Groups that people offer to run and if your particular interests are not catered for you just send an email round to see if there are like-minded souls who are also interested in joining you. 

The Groups page on this website shows all the current Groups and their Group Leaders. You can send an email to a Group Leader by clicking on his/her name in the relevant Group.

We also offer a monthly talk in the Faringdon Corn Exchange which are always enjoyable and often instructive and you get to meet other members.

Although the movement set out to cater for people who are no longer in full time employment, we recognise that the way we operate could easily be extended to evenings and weekends, and we are keen to hear from people who would prefer those sorts of times so that we can build up a viable level of interest (please contact our Chairman).

There is an annual membership subscription and it is possible that the different Groups may also have overheads of their own, like room hire or the cost of a Pub Lunch, which the members of that group are expected to cover.

Please see our Membership page for how to join our u3a.

About Third Age Trust

The Third Age Trust (TAT) supports over 1000 local u3as across the UK who, between them, have more than 430,000 members.

TAT offers Online Learning Events, free to all u3a members, including podcasts, workshops and courses. All members may also take part, free of charge, in various projects, initiatives and competitions.

Finally, TAT also runs 'Interest Groups Online' (IGO), a digital branch of the u3a. Membership of IGO costs £12pa