A unique university; France's People's University

THE People's University in the northern French town of Caen is no ivory tower for the elite. Radical philosopher Michel Onfray set it up for those who were "programmed" to let education pass them by.
The lectures regularly attract about 1,000 students, among them the jobless and employed, youngsters just getting started in life and those already retired.
What they have in common is a thirst for knowledge for its own sake since there is no recognised degree or qualification on offer at Onfray's Universite Populaire (UP).
The university offers everything from architecture to economics -- there is even a specially tailored philosophy course for children.
From modest beginnings 10 years ago, it has made its mark. Onfray launched the Universite Populaire in 2002, the year Jean-Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Front party reached the second round of the presidential election in France.
The prolific author lives off the sales of his books, dozens of them, which have been published in more than 25 countries.
UP is not a one-man show: about 20 other academics also offer their services, lecturing on everything from ancient music to mathematics.
And the idea has caught on, with similar universities springing up in other French cities including Lyon and Grenoble.
The people he has in mind are those from a working class background like himself: he said he was "programmed to be a worker at the dairy" in his village. Social pressures conspire to discourage certain people from tapping into their intellectual potential, Onfray argues.
Philosopher Raphael Enthoven a former lectures at the UP said that the students at the popular university are being taught to think for themselves and equipped with the means to disagree with their teachers.
"It's extraordinary," says retired teacher Jean-Pierre, a regular student at the weekly two-hour lectures and discussions, who was in at the beginning. He recalls the early days when the university attracted around 200 people in a modest auditorium: now they are packed into in a hall that struggles to hold five times that number. Screens relay lectures to students seated outside.
For Jean-Pierre, the courses are a lifeline: they keep him young and sharp, he says. The car pool system set up on the UP website suggests there are plenty of equally committed followers: it shows people coming from as far as Paris, 220km to the south; and Lorient, 270km to the west.