University of the Third Age Port Phillip
University of the Third Age Port Phillip
ENROLMENT FAQs for 2019
Do I have to be a U3APP member to enrol in 2019?
YES. You must have paid your 2019 membership prior to the start of enrolments on Monday 10 December 2018. If you’re not sure of your membership status, go to the U3A Port Phillip website, login, and your status will be displayed at the top of the screen.
When/how can I enrol in a course?
We prefer you to login and enrol on-line via our website, as it saves a lot of manual processing. However we do accept paper enrolment forms.
On-line enrolments open Monday 10 December. The opening time for enrolment depends on the type of course:
Enrolments stay open for every course until the course fills. Waitlists are on-going – you can add yourself at any time.
Paper forms are available from the Office from Monday 26 November, or can be downloaded from the website here. Completed forms can be submitted during the last week of Semester (3-7 December), but are not processed until Enrolment Day 10 December. Processing will be done on the same basis as for on-line bookings: first Exercise courses at 9:30, then Language courses at 10:00, then everything else at 10:30.
I can’t login to the U3APP website – what do I do?
If you have any problems logging in, please send an email to [email protected] and someone will assist.
I’ve been attending a course in 2018 – do I have to enrol again?
YES. All courses are filled on a first-come-first-served basis. No preference is given to people who have been attending the course in the past. You need to enrol in the course on or after 10 December.
I’m already on a Waitlist for a course I want to join. Do I have to do anything?
YES. All courses are filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Waitlists are cleared at the end of the year and no preference is given to people who have been on a Waitlist. You need to enrol in the course on or after 10 December.
Am I more likely to get into a course if I enrol on-line?
We try and make the enrolment process as fair as possible. Paper enrolments are numbered in order of receipt and keyed by volunteers at the same time as on-line enrolments are opened. If you have a low-numbered paper enrolment, you will probably get a place in the courses you want. If you have a higher numbered paper enrolment, you are more likely to miss out on a popular course.
I would rather put in a paper enrolment. When can I do so?
Paper forms are available from the Office from Monday 26 November, or can be downloaded from the website here. Completed forms can be left at the Office from 3-7 December. Forms will not be accepted before that date.
How do I maximise my chances of getting into a popular course?
Here are some hints:
What if I miss out on the course I want to do?
Unfortunately, some of our courses are very popular and they may fill before you try to enrol. When this happens, the entry in the Courses and Enrolling page will change so that you can’t click on it to enrol. Instead the word WAITLIST will appear beside it. If you missed out, please click on the word WAITLIST. This will create an email message which you must SEND to put yourself on the Waitlist. Waitlists are processed in order of receipt of these emails.
Is it worth bothering to put myself on the Waitlist for a class that is full?
YES and YES. For two reasons:
I enrolled in the 1T99 Dummy course – should my name appear in the list of attendees?
You need to refresh the page before your name will appear. To ‘refresh’ your screen:
I enrolled in the 1T99 Dummy course – should I receive a confirmation email?
Yes, you should. If you can’t find it, please check your spam or junk mail folder carefully. Many of our members have found that U3APP emails go into these folders, especially if they have a Gmail account. To find out how to stop this from happening for a Gmail account, click here.
I tried to put myself on the Waitlist for the 1T98 Dummy full course and it did not create an email as it is supposed to. What do I do?
This can happen if there is a setting on your computer that isn’t correct. If you use Outlook, click here to find out how to fix it. If you use Gmail, click here.
Is there a limit to the number of courses I can enrol in?
Because of high demand there are restrictions for some classes.
(E) Exercise classes and (L) Language classes are limited to 2 of each type of course per member.
U3APP is a not for profit organisation, entirely staffed by volunteers.
It’s your U3A, and we are always ready to welcome volunteers to help U3APP manage, expand and improve its courses and events (see Volunteers and Tutors). Indeed we expect that every member will contribute as a volunteer at some time.
In any one year, about a quarter of our membership is involved in some volunteer capacity. This shows how rewarding our volunteers find the task of keeping U3APP running and making it as efficient, successful and friendly as possible.
See the Governance page for details of who manages U3APP, and how.
U3APP is strongly supported by the City of Port Phillip, who own, manage and maintain the venues we use for our courses and events.
We receive some grant funding from local, state and federal governments, administered via U3A Network Victoria.
U3APP also benefits from the use of discounts on computer hardware and software that are available to not-for-profit organisations. This includes a range of discounts obtained via Connecting Up, and discounted use of AppSheet which we use for electronic class rolls.
The heart of U3APP is at the Mary Kehoe Community Centre, 224 Danks Street Albert Park. In this spacious Edwardian house, we have our Office, three classrooms and a Hall which are in more or less constant use by our members during the day.
From time to time we also use other community spaces within the City of Port Phillip:
Our “Out and About” excursions can take you to a range of places in and around Melbourne, from the Royal Botanical Gardens to Bendigo Art Gallery.
Our Course Program and Calendar of Events provide the information you need about where courses are held, with Google maps to help you find venues that may not be familiar to you.
All our courses are taught or presented by volunteers. This means the range of courses is partly dictated by the availability of people to teach, as well as by the demands of our membership.
Our courses include
Once you become a financial member of U3APP, you can enrol in as many courses as you wish for no extra charge (except for occasional charges for course notes, special venue hire, the cost of excursions etc). There are some limits set from time to time on the number of courses of the same type for popular courses such as languages and exercise courses – details are in our Enrolment Policies. There are no academic entry requirements nor any assessments or examinations.
We are always looking for new tutors and new ideas for courses. So if you have an interest or passion you’d like to share with others, please get in touch with our Course Coordination team.
If you’re retired or semi-retired and live in or around the City of Port Phillip, you can join the University of the Third Age, Port Phillip (U3APP). Our regular classes provide all kinds of opportunities to learn new skills, keep fit, and broaden your knowledge. Our very low annual membership fee gives you access to all our classes, and to a range of one-off events.
U3A Port Phillip is also a very friendly and supportive community, providing opportunities for you to make new friends, and to give back to the community by becoming a volunteer.
Office hours:
9:30 am to 3:30 pm Monday – Friday
(Excluding public and school holidays)
Class times:
Classes start as early as 9:15am and as late as 5:00pm.
Classes range in length from 1 – 3 hours – the average is about 1.5 hours.
Times are set according to the availability of rooms and the preferences of the volunteer tutor.
The University of the Third Age is an international movement whose aims are the education and stimulation of mainly retired members of the community—those in their third ‘age’ of life. It is commonly referred to as U3A.
There is no universally accepted model for the U3A. Its original conception in France as an extramural university activity was significantly modified in the United Kingdom where it was recognized that most people of retirement age have something to contribute and the emphasis has been on sharing, without formal links to traditional universities.
Many English-speaking countries have followed this geragogic model, whereas continental European countries have mostly followed the French model.
A British U3A website says about “The Third Age” membership eligibility: “U3A membership is not related to a specific age but to a period in one’s life (the third age) after the second age of full-time employment and parental responsibility.
Anybody in their third age can join U3A and this includes people who are working part-time. There is no lower age for membership.”
(from Wikipedia)
The list of attendees appears at the bottom of the screen.
If you are on the waitlist for a course, and you no longer want a place in that course:
On-line:
*If clicking on CANCEL doesn’t generate an email, please click here to learn why and how to fix it.
PLEASE NOTE that if you withdraw from a FULL course, your name will not be removed from the course list until the Cancel email is read and processed by our volunteer Enrolment team. This may take up to 2 days.
Via the Office: notify the office in person, or by email or phone.
On-line:
Please apologise for each course separately by clicking on Apology for each course. It may be a bit more effort for you, but it makes life much easier for our volunteer Office team.
*If clicking on APOLOGY doesn’t generate an email, please click here to learn why and how to fix it.
Via the Office: notify the office in person, or by email or phone.
During a class: advise the tutor AT THE END OF THE CLASS who will mark your apologies on the class roll.
On-line: after bookings have opened
On-line enrolments are preferred as this significantly reduces the amount of back-office work for our volunteers.
Paper Enrolment Form: before bookings open for First Semester
The start date for acceptance of paper Enrolment Forms for first semester is published on the U3APP website and in the e-Bulletin. Enrolment Forms received before this date are treated as though they had been received on the start date (ie there is no advantage to be gained by submitting early). On the start date and thereafter, paper Enrolment Forms are numbered in order of receipt. Paper Enrolment forms are processed on the same day that on-line bookings open.
If your enrolment is successful, you will receive a confirmation email. Please check your Junk/Spam folders as these automatically-generated emails often finish up there.
If your enrolment is unsuccessful, you will receive an email telling you that you have been waitlisted.
Via the Office: after bookings have opened
If you are disappointed to find that a course you would like to join is already full, we urge you to waitlist yourself. This helps us know what the demand is for our courses, and whether we need to try to find more tutors for a particular subject. Our enrolment team moved more than 150 people off waitlists and into courses in the first semester of 2017.
You can go on the waitlist for any course or event which is shown as FULL.
Online:
*If clicking on WAITLIST doesn’t generate an email, please click here to learn why and how to fix it.
Via the office: Contact the office in person, or by email or phone.
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