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Two students in the third quarter of life explain how study has enriched their lives with new interests and friendship after busy careers.
9 July 2026 | 8 minute read
Nearly 60% of students at The City Literary Institute – affectionately known as City Lit – are over 50. While some are there to retrain for new careers or tick boxes on a CV, many are there because learning itself is a reward.
Four years after leaving her NHS career, 69-year-old Rifat Wahhab is enjoying everything from art history lectures to Russian literature seminars – passions she had little time for during her busy working life.
Fellow student Henry* was previously a lawyer who had always regretted not studying literature. Since retiring in 2024, he’s turned down the consulting or board roles that may have come his way, choosing instead to spend his time taking courses on subjects from Russian and Eastern European poetry to post-World War Two cinema.
Many educational institutions now welcome older students. In 2024-25, London’s City Lit had 15,039 students aged over 50,1 representing 58% of learners. And a recent study found that at Birkbeck, University of London, another institution with a reputation for welcoming students of all ages, 10.7% of learners were over 50.2
While education in life’s third quarter is not for everyone, for Wahhab, the City Lit courses have led to a fundamental shift in her feeling of wellbeing. She explains: “I’ve always wanted my brain to be stimulated. I’m not happy just meeting people for lunch, going to dinner parties and going to the cinema; it’s just not enough for me. That’s not my idea of happiness. Happiness for me comes from learning something amazing.”
Wahhab, who previously worked for an NHS learning disability team in Kensington and Chelsea, adds: “You definitely feel that you’re not in mental decline when you come to these courses. Not only are they incredibly satisfying but you develop greater critical analysis skills, which leads to different ways of thinking about things and approaching problems. You’re not skimming through life anymore. You develop a greater depth of thinking.”
Your third quarter is the chapter where your focus moves from striving to choosing – when you have the resources, the perspective and the experience to make the choices that matter to you.
Henry aims to do two or three courses each term. He explains: “I wanted to study literature at university, but I was persuaded to read law. I’ve regretted that decision. I always had this passion for 20th-century writing and poetry, which I kept up in an amateur fashion throughout. I always knew I wanted to go back to it in some form.”
Having had a demanding career, Henry says that his wife was worried that he wouldn’t have enough to do when he retired. But he says that going to college has given his life a structure that it would otherwise lack. He also finds learning with others stimulating.
“I would say 60% of your learning comes from the tutor and some of your own preparations,” he explains. “But a lot of my learning comes from other participants as well, because the classroom is always full of super-intelligent people, and they’ve always got something interesting to say.”
Mark Malcomson, CBE, is principal of City Lit, which runs 6,000 courses a year and where, while the youngest students are 19, the oldest is currently 96. The student body includes many people over the age of 50 who are either thinking about retirement, are scaling back their working hours or have already retired.
He explains: “what I would call my granddad’s model where you hit your 65th birthday and, bang, you’re retired, doesn’t really happen anymore. It’s a much more fluid line and, as a result, people are doing a lot more thinking in the lead-up to it. Education plays quite a big part for those who are thinking cleverly about what they can do, how they can keep purposeful, healthy and engaged, and ensure that they’ve got communities.”
Like Henry, many of the older students at City Lit had a passion for a subject when they were younger but ended up studying something else that offered the prospect of a more lucrative career. Later-in-life learning offers the chance to rekindle those early passions. It also provides the opportunity to introduce people to a new community – especially those whose social networks have been based on their jobs.
Professor Eddy Davelaar is professor of Psychology and Applied Neuroscience at Birkbeck University of London. He carries out research into wellbeing and the prevention of cognitive decline. His findings show that, as people get older, education protects them in several ways.
“The first is cognitive stimulation,” he explains. “Being challenged in any shape or form, as you are in a course, forces you to use your brain and keep busy. There are also psychological benefits. People’s identities are connected to what they do during their lives.
Another important aspect to wellbeing is social cohesion. “When you get into your 50s and 60s, you typically tend to have a set social network. But if you now go into education, you will meet a whole bunch of new people. That social change enriches your life and adds to your wellbeing,” he says.
Prof Davelaar explains that while distance learning courses offer benefits, they lack the social aspects that can make in-classroom study particularly rewarding. He says: “if you meet new friends, that’s great for your network – but these connections also provide you with the social capital everyone needs in their life. They help you live longer, thrive and age well.”
Ultimately, studying as you get older, whether for fun or to achieve a qualification such as a graduate or postgraduate degree, helps to keep your mind sharp. Education can bring new meaning to life so that you no longer define yourself by your former career but by what you’re learning right now. It means you can stop saying, “I used to work for the NHS” or “I used to be a lawyer” and start telling people, “I’m studying literature” or “I’m investigating post-war cinema.”
Your third quarter doesn’t have to be about looking back; it can be about looking forward and starting something new. What will you be learning this time next year?
Returning to education can be one of the most rewarding ways to spend your third quarter, but it does require financial considerations. Course fees, materials, transport and potentially reduced working hours all need to be factored in.This is where wealth planning becomes essential. The right financial arrangements can give you the freedom to pursue the education you want. Whether that means setting aside a dedicated “learning fund,” adjusting your retirement income strategy or exploring tax-efficient ways to fund personal development, talk to us about the financial freedom to keep learning.
The idea of studying in the third quarter of your life might seem daunting at first. Here, Malcomson and Prof Davelaar have answered some common concerns.
1. Am I too old – will I fit in? Institutions like City Lit and Birkbeck are designed to be welcoming and accessible to all ages, and the mix across the generations is an added bonus in diversifying people’s social networks.
2. Will it be too hard (or too easy)? Learning is best when it’s challenging but not overwhelming. Try teaser sessions and open days to gauge whether a course is right for you.
3. Is it worth doing a degree at my age? A degree makes sense if you want a career change later in life. If your goal is wellbeing, shorter courses can be just as valuable.
4. Do I have the right background for the subject? Many later-life courses are designed for people without prior knowledge in that area and discovering something completely new is part of the adventure.
5. I had a difficult learning experience in the past. Should I be worried? Education wasn’t always a pleasure for many people, even if they did well academically. Often this was down to the system rather than the individual. Also, in the past, teaching styles were different and conditions like dyslexia went undiagnosed.
Sources:
1. City Lit, April 2026
2. “The UK Universities with the Most Students over 50.” SunLife, www.sunlife.co.uk/press-office/news/students-over-50/. Accessed 16 June 2026.
*Some people interviewed for this article did not want their full names and ages published for privacy reasons.
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