At several UTA's in Slovakia computer courses and access to Internet are an (on) offer. Courses of Computers and Information technology and a work with computers as well as access to Internet are limited and modified to the number of available rooms at the university. Computer courses for senior students are scheduled at such times when facilities are not required for the young students - mostly on Friday afternoons. Often it in the only possibility for older people to gain access to a computer. Use of computers owned by our seniors is comparatively rare. The greatest difficulty lies in the high cost of the necessary equipment. Some seniors are helped by theirs children who provide them with computers as a way to provide means of contacting them and communicating with them. Often such children live and work abroad. Another possibility may be acquiring less powerful computers when children or grandchildren up-grade theirs.

Another factor influencing access of seniors to Internet is the high cost of connecting to the net. A general increase in fees charged by Slovak telecom caused a drop in the activity of domestic users of Internet. A survey published in the Sme daily newspaper in November 2001 states:" Among the population in Slovakia older than 18 years 28,5% of inhabitants only work with Internet.

If problems with financing were solved only one other would remain and it is the language problem. Such a barier between individual seniors of Europe significantly affects mutual communication and the use of information available on Internet. We are a small country where most inhabitants speak only their own language - Slovak. In spite of the stated facts we join the activities organized by Ulm University's ZAWIW center. At its instigation we commenced work at our own homepage. The homepage contains next to study programs some lestures, research papers and papers presented at conferences. Anybody can gain access to this information. It is advantages to immobile citizens that they can study in a distant form. Our page refers to the address of the center in Ulm so the user may contact other UTA's in Europe.

It can be said that seniors in the capital city of Slovakia - Bratislava have the greatest interest in work with computers. Around 130 UTA students attend courses of IT yearly. The course is of three year duration. For everyone attending we make an effort to provide a room with individual access to a computer. The students are divided into seven groups. Slow steps, adequate pace, in a group of similar age, it is the very best we can offer to our older students. In the second largest city in Slovakia - Kosice computer courses have been in existence for the last ten years and the number of students there average fifty every year. UTA's in smaller towns have difficulties in obtaining premises and equipping with hardware. We welcomed therefore an invitation to a new project Socrates, coordinated by the University Ulm. The project will be aimed at expanding work with Internet as well as informing older people not yet attending a UTA. Our task will be exhibiting Internet as a form of education in retirement homes, retiree's clubs, Union of retirees centers and in other smaller associations of older people.

We appreciate that further education of older people must not be limited to forms of passive receipt of information The abilities of older people ought to be enhanced not only by attending lectures of UTA but by learning through Internet also. We shall therefore take further action and create suitable conditions at other universities and senior centers. When we look at the number of people of post-productive age in our country we note ii counts around 920 000 which is about 18% of all inhabitants of Slovakia. In Slovakia UTA's are attended by 3000 students only. This gives you a picture what a small percentage of older people in Slovakia lend themselves to further education at UTA and many less attend computer courses or work with Internet.

PhDR Nadezda Hrapkova