Education Minister Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) promised on Thursday to launch a trial run next year of a university program for people “in the third chapter of their lives” to encourage middle-aged and elderly people to return to school.

Planning for the trial is expected to be completed by the end of this year and will be made public next year, Cheng said.

Cheng responded to Taiwan People’s Party Member of Parliament Wu Chun-cheng (吳春城) during a legislative session.

Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

The average age in Taiwan was 19.3 in the 1970s, but is predicted to reach 52.4 in the 2040s, Wu said.

But most universities only accept students as young as 18, meaning strategic planning for college admissions hasn’t changed since the 1970s, he said.

Wu added that the “powerful generation,” which refers to people aged 45, 55 or 60 and older by different definitions, controls two-thirds of Taiwan’s wealth, but many regret not going to college.

The MP said that the ministry of education should benefit from the rich resources of universities in different ways to encourage the strong generation to return to school.

“Instead of nursing homes, retirees should enter universities,” he said.

Wu said he gathered input from all segments of society through public hearings and compiled information on special classes for undergraduate programs and multi-specialty programs.

He added that many schools have expressed a willingness to introduce them.

The Ministry of Education told Wu that it would assign a professional team to develop core curriculum modules in the short term.

The ministry said that in the medium term, it will identify some schools to pilot the “university of the third chapter of life” program, and in the long term, it plans to allow these schools to award diplomas.