Erasmus+60 aimed first of all at taking stock on a large scale of existing Higher Education offers for citizens aged 60 and over in relation to the issues of inclusion and diversity. The second objective consisted in developing pilot courses contributing to the aim of building inclusive higher education systems that contain adapted offers to citizens over 60, including student life activities to maintain one’s health. The project’s third objective contributed to the aim of promoting inter-connected higher education systems in Europe by providing a pilot platform for an online offer of shared courses as well as intercultural learning activities for citizens over 60. The fourth and final objective was to develop policy recommendations that drawing on the project results in order to highlight the urgent need to open new and more systematic educational perspectives for senior citizens of the EHEA.
Erasmus+60 is a highly innovative project focusing on a particular age group that has not been sufficiently considered in the development of HEI activities and framework programmes like Erasmus+: European citizens aged 60 and above. With life expectancy increasingly growing and given the fact that one citizen in three is expected to be over 65 by 2060, the need for studying and training opportunities grows correspondingly. Studies are not only of benefit to the mental and physical health of senior citizens, but they are also important in view of late career development and professional activities during semi-retirement and beyond as well as personal development of senior citizens including critical thinking as well as language and IT skills.