Abstract:

Introduction:
Both academic studies and the most recent international official guidelines have recognized that cultural heritage is a social or collective construct, but also that it has a social value in itself. In this context, the importance of education and the encouragement of citizens to play an active and participatory role in decision-making processes has been highlighted. This includes heritage elements and contexts of very diverse scales and typologies: territorial, landscape, urban, architectural, furniture, ethnological, industrial or immaterial, among others. More recently, documents on sustainable development have emphasized the potential of cultural heritage as an element that facilitates social cohesion through collective appropriation and the generation of shared experiences and memories, thus also influencing equity, economic balance and environmental protection.

Objectives:
In light of the above, this paper attempts to assess the influence that a particular type of higher education for adults - the Experience Classrooms, Elderly University or Senior Adult Education - can have on fostering heritage awareness and increasing cohesion, civic participation and social responsibility in the safeguarding of cultural heritage. In particular, we will evaluate the presence and intensity of subjects related to cultural heritage as they appear in the syllabus for elderly higher education of two public universities in the same city: the University of Seville, with twelve provincial headquarters with different teaching programmes, and the Pablo de Olavide University, with twenty-one venues and a single teaching programme with minor differences.

Methodology:
To this end, a study will be started on the relationship between heritage education and the social appropriation of cultural heritage. Next, the value of senior citizens in the social structure and their role in improving social cohesion, fostering active participation and collective awareness will be explored. For that purpose, the satisfaction surveys that the students elaborate on the subjects and on the teaching staff will be taken into account. This will be related to the importance of higher education for the elderly. Subsequently, the teaching programmes proposed for the different venues of the Aula de la Experiencia at the University of Seville and the Aula Abierta de Mayores at the Pablo de Olavide University will be studied qualitatively and quantitatively as case studies.

Results:
The preliminary findings show that the teaching of cultural heritage related matters in the senior programmes of both universities is recurrent in most courses and venues. There is also a special incidence of this type of subject in extension, continuity or permanent training activities and courses. This may indicate a special interest of the students, verified from the surveys, and a high degree of involvement in the knowledge of cultural heritage, especially of their immediate surroundings, which would contribute to the objectives pursued.

Keywords:

Cultural Heritage, University for the Elderly, Social Appropriation, Collective Awareness.