Document written by the AEPUM's President to the members of the Congress and Senate Education Committees

Mr. Spokesperson of the Parliamentary Group......

I am contacting you to inform you that in the last Spanish National Association of University Programmes for Older Adults' (AEPUM) Assembly, held in Almería on September 19th I was elected President, and some of the Board members were renewed. At the present time, 30 public and private universities belong to this Association. More than half of the Spanish Universities that offer this type of programmes are also included in the Association.

Moreover, I have attached a document. It is the report of a research team forged in the Association that has to be handed over as final part of a research project funded by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Spain's Official State Gazzete or BOE, 17 June 2005). This has been attached so that, when processing the reform bill of the Organic Law on Universities, the efforts are included in the articles (as it was in a previous draft). The effort that almost every Spanish University is making for the democratization of knowledge (because the only requirement is age, more than 50 or 55 years) through a growing population group unable to access the University at the time, although now they are able to do so with these programmes. 

Along with this document we attach the proposal made by the Association of Universities Directorate-General, that was contained in the first draft of the bill. As you will be able to verify by this report, what you are asked for is to explicitly acknowledge these programmes in the articles of the future law. By this, education authorities (National and Regional) will later implement them through the applicable regulation. With this a full acknowledgement of these programmes shall be achieved, because in addition to the recognition of society and university institutions, we must add legal recognition. 

The AEPUM Board of Directors remains at your disposal to personally inform you about University Programmes for Older Adults, as well as about activities and proposals carried out by the different universities within this framework.

Awaiting your reply and a possible reunion to discuss the aspects that you may deem appropriate, I thank you on my behalf and on behalf of the Association for your attention. I also take the opportunity to send you a cordial greeting.

Santiago de Compostela , October 2006
Antonio Rodríguez Martínez
President of AEPUM