Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) offer noncredit courses with no assignments or grades to adults over age 50.
[1] Bernard Osher, a native of Maine, managed the family hardware and plumbing supply business before heading to New York to work for Oppenheimer & Company.
Encouraged by the success of these two programs, Osher decided to greatly expand his grant support for similar lifelong learning institutes.
In 2004 Osher established a National Resource Center (NRC) at USM to distribute information about effective educational programs for older adults via a web site, a research journal, and an annual conference.
[5] Under current practices, if an OLLI program has 500 fee-paying members by the end of its fourth year, the university is eligible for a $1 million endowment grant from the Osher Foundation.