4.5 Discussions: the reasons for the differences between Chinese UA and British U3A Comparing Western research results and the findings from interviews, I find the difference between Chinese UA and British U3A, which results in different affection of lifelong learning for elderly people in respective countries: efficiency, equality and universality, and social recognition. Firstly, lifelong learning for elderly people is managed and funded by different sectors in the UK and China due to different political regime and economic mode, which results in efficiency issues on improving QoL of older students. Since the British U3A is self-sufficiency and self-financed mode, stable cash flow and decision-making mechanism without external intervention
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Government-funded Chinese UA may lead to inequality of education and people with urgent needs cannot access to education. In China, in order to secure stability of the country, most of resource and funds are control by central government. Local public finance has limited income and rights to allocate funds. According to China Statistical Yearbook (2014), China is facing serious unbalanced regional development problem. Thus, parts of local governments do not have enough funds to support ageing education, which results in unbalance development of the UAs in China. Funds of British U3A are raised based on the projects of each U3A and the abilities of fund-raisers, which avoids the problem in China. However, according to The 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of China’s Undertakings for the Aged (2011), Chinese government advocates civil capital investment on ageing education to make up for deficiency of fiscal …show more content…
On one side, inherent ideas prevent older adults from benefiting from lifelong learning. In China, most of older adults hold the ideas of living an easy life in old age, Yiyangtiannian in Chinese idiom, and learning is related to younger generations who need to chase progress in career and study, not for elderly people. Large numbers of older adults stay at home, play cards and Majiang, or take care of babys; limited numbers of older adults benefit from ageing education. In addition, the consumption idea of Chinese older adults is conservative, which means that they always save money and only spend on necessities. Seldom people are willing to spend extra money on education and entertainment. Thus, the backward and conservative attitude and consumption idea limit the role of lifelong learning in improving older adults’ QoL (Dong, 2009). In order to improve the condition, promotion of lifelong learning needs to be carried out to enable more elderly people know its benefits. On the other side, urbanization related population mobility of older adults leads to inaccessibility of education (Meng et al., 2004). Those older adults, called “the elderly floating population groups”, should settle down in old age but migrate with their children. Till now, there is no policy or law protecting their rights and needs (Cheng, 2015). They are unable to attend the UA
Government-funded Chinese UA may lead to inequality of education and people with urgent needs cannot access to education. In China, in order to secure stability of the country, most of resource and funds are control by central government. Local public finance has limited income and rights to allocate funds. According to China Statistical Yearbook (2014), China is facing serious unbalanced regional development problem. Thus, parts of local governments do not have enough funds to support ageing education, which results in unbalance development of the UAs in China. Funds of British U3A are raised based on the projects of each U3A and the abilities of fund-raisers, which avoids the problem in China. However, according to The 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of China’s Undertakings for the Aged (2011), Chinese government advocates civil capital investment on ageing education to make up for deficiency of fiscal …show more content…
On one side, inherent ideas prevent older adults from benefiting from lifelong learning. In China, most of older adults hold the ideas of living an easy life in old age, Yiyangtiannian in Chinese idiom, and learning is related to younger generations who need to chase progress in career and study, not for elderly people. Large numbers of older adults stay at home, play cards and Majiang, or take care of babys; limited numbers of older adults benefit from ageing education. In addition, the consumption idea of Chinese older adults is conservative, which means that they always save money and only spend on necessities. Seldom people are willing to spend extra money on education and entertainment. Thus, the backward and conservative attitude and consumption idea limit the role of lifelong learning in improving older adults’ QoL (Dong, 2009). In order to improve the condition, promotion of lifelong learning needs to be carried out to enable more elderly people know its benefits. On the other side, urbanization related population mobility of older adults leads to inaccessibility of education (Meng et al., 2004). Those older adults, called “the elderly floating population groups”, should settle down in old age but migrate with their children. Till now, there is no policy or law protecting their rights and needs (Cheng, 2015). They are unable to attend the UA