At the University of Saskatchewan, students over the age of 55 can partake in a program called Saskatchewan Senior Continued Learning, also known as the SSCL.

The program, as seen here, provides a space for seniors to learn, stay up to date, and connect with one another.

While nowadays, the typical university classroom is quieter and filled to the brim with laptops, smartphones, and tablets, the SSCL classrooms seem to run a bit differently.

“Over the course of 20 odd years [it’s] gone from people talking to each other to almost stony silence,” said SSCL Ethics professor Will Buschert. “In the SSCL classroom, very few have devices, [and] they’re talking to each other, which is kind of refreshing.”

Another aspect that makes the course unique is that there are no examinations, homework, or textbooks.

“It’s so relaxed, I’m telling you,” said Helen Furtan, who has been an SSCL student for over 10 years. “Most of the people who take the classes are so interested and have [such] strong backgrounds in all of the fields that the classes are offered, so they have lots of good questions.”

All walks of life join in on the program. From people who have gotten their degrees and people who never got the chance to finish high school, all are welcome and encouraged to learn.

“In the average class a quarter of those people who sign up have never gone to university,” said Art Battiste, the former program manager of the SSCL. “Many of them have not completed high school.”

Unlike university, which requires a high school diploma and costs thousands of dollars to attend, at the SSCL that isn’t required.

The cost for a membership is $5.00, which needs to be renewed every year. The cost of an individual course is $60.00, including tax. This price, according to Battiste, would grant about 16 hours of university instruction for that semester.

“[The program] keeps our minds active, so that’s a huge benefit to have something affordable in the community,” said Furtan. “You can take that however far you want to in keeping active, meeting people, etc., and just opening up the world so that we don’t get siloed in our old age.”

For those who cannot attend the classes in person, be it for mobility issues or poor weather conditions, there is a hybrid option that allows students to attend class online as well as in person. However, its costs an additional $20.00, but to some, that cost is worth it when it comes to the alternative.

“One of the biggest deterrents [of coming to school] is the cost of parking,” said Angeline Battiste, a longtime SSCL student.

And just because some choose to attend their classes from home doesn’t mean that they have to miss out on the community the face-to-face classes provide.

“[My grandma would] do [the classes] with her friends,” said Jayden Coe, grandson of Helen Furtan. “So, they [would] come over, and we have a projector in our basement. So, she’d invite her friends, and they’d all come downstairs and be there for their class. And yeah, just hang out together.”

While there may be limited seating in an in person classroom, the hybrid option allows more students to sit in on the class. For example, in Buschert’s Ethics and Artificial Intelligence class, the majority of students attend from online.

“It’s an enormous hybrid class with 150 students online and 40 or 50 in the classroom,” said Buschert.

And as far as classes go, the types of courses they offered in the winter of 2026 included history, philosophy, psychology, and various history and art classes, as seen here.

But the people in the SSCL don’t only stay in the classroom; there are field trips too.

“Every year … when I organized some of those quest tours, we would take people to interesting places. We would have people on board to explain a few things, and it was a full day, so it was a lot of fun,” said Angeline Battiste. “For example, we did one tour out to Quail Lakes and discovered salinization.”

The program itself doesn’t only benefit seniors.

“It benefits the entire community in Saskatoon,” said Angeline Battiste. “It’s a huge contributor for the common good. In every way. Social, educational, you know? The way forward is [by] educating people who need to know what’s going on.”

The SSCL is a helpful resource for those who wish to continue their learning within a community opposed to just on their own.

“This is something that, for people who reach a certain age [and] that generally have left the workforce or haven’t been in the workforce, is the golden opportunity,” said Art Battiste. “It enables them to fill time and space … and come together.”