In the context of an aging society, a substantial need is to create and promote opportunities for long-life learning, especially to meet the educational needs of older people. One of the ways to achieve this goal is the establishment of special training programs and institutions accessible and adapted to the needs of the older population. In this sense, educational programs and Universities for the Third Age (U3A) have been developed in the vast majority of countries, especially in the USA and Western European countries. With a history of over 50 years, U3A is an education formula adapted to seniors. U3A is a socio-cultural structure, where the participants (re)get in contact with knowledge, and the acquisition of new knowledge or the validation and updating of those already possessed is carried out through age-specific methods. Also, U3A aims to expand lifelong learning opportunities for older people according to their needs. The article represents a comprehensive analysis of the development and implementation of the U3A in different countries, such as France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Romania, the USA, etc. At the international level, the network of higher education institutions providing U3A programs -,,Age-Friendly University Network" - is established. The results of the analysis are relevant in the context of identifying the particularities and challenges in implementing such education programs, that can be used in the decision-making process by political decision-makers in the Republic of Moldova in the establishment of the U3A. The main areas analyzed in the paper are the historical aspects, the legal aspects, the recruitment of older persons and teachers, the organization of the education process etc.