Academic retirement no longer follows a consistent, predictable pattern. This trend demonstrates a need to rethink the nature of retirement in colleges and universities to better serve both individual professionals and their institutions.

This essay argues for a redefinition of disciplinary activity and examines disciplinary identity development beyond traditional academic/nonacademic binaries. Through analysis of interviews with twenty-seven retired members of rhetoric, composition, and writing studies, this essay provides a closer look at retirement as an active but overlooked…

Implementing retirement innovations requires careful attention to the organizational change process.

In the UK a 'crisis' has been manufactured around the so-called baby boomer generation. It has been claimed that this demographic (those born between 1946 and 1964) have benefitted from supportive public policies throughout their lives and are still continuing to access advantages but at some cost to younger generations. For example, policies that…

This pioneering study examines the meaning of academic leadership in terms of the changing of the guard in academia. Research findings on seniority and experience and their association with leadership show that these have a considerable impact on management skills and on the ability of those with experience and seniority to influence the young…

What is the impact of the gender pay gap in academia over the course of a career and retirement? To quantify this impact, we used a Canadian post-secondary institution as a case study and simulated the effects of the reported difference in salary across multiple academic career trajectories. A starting wage gap of less than $9,000 resulted in a…

This chapter reviews discourses about "senior" and retired faculty. These discourses suggest a deficit or burden-based view that shapes the values and practices of faculty and department chairs. Yet retired faculty can be valuable resources and help with teaching, service, and research. A process for changing departmental views to create…

In this paper I want to think about some of the issues involved in trying to do inclusive and socially just education research. I draw on two education research projects that I am involved with. The first project is a small-scale exploratory study with twelve Education academics who are 'staying on' post retirement. The second is a major…

Receiving mentoring is associated with lasting career benefits ; however, less is known about long-term career gains for mentors. A national sample of retired academics were surveyed to examine associations between past mentoring behaviors and current evaluations of their careers. Participants (N = 277) were on average 73.6 (SD = 6.2) years old…

This chapter describes the types of organizations that have been established in recent years to enhance the experience and engagement of retirees from higher education institutions. Using the University of Southern California as an example, it also introduces a range of strategies institutions can employ to ease the transition into retirement.

This paper examined the concept of contributory pension scheme as it relates to lecturers' job commitment in the university system. It adopted the Social Exchange Theory by George Casper Homans in 1958 and a review of other scholars' findings on pension scheme implementation. It established a link between the CPS implementation procedures and the…

Do employees at public colleges and universities have better retirement benefits than K-12 employees? This is the central question in the new report "Choice and Quality Among Retirement Plans for Educators." To answer this question, we evaluate the quality of higher education and K-12 retirement plans using five key variables: (1)…

This research examined the decisions of retiring university teachers to continue work after retirement in the same profession or leave for other employment or non-paid activities. The study used a questionnaire to collect data from 231 respondents purposively drawn from 20 Ghanaian public universities. Analyses of the data revealed that most…

The decades between tenure and retirement constitute the longest yet least understood period of a faculty member's career. Previous research depicts the midcareer as fraught with reduced job and career satisfaction, lowered productivity, and even stagnation. However, we suggest a reframing of this period. Drawing on data from surveys and…

This study is a pioneer study that examines the advantages of faculty employment after retirement age from the perspective of academic faculty. The economic-industrial literature suggests that prior experience is a major consideration in the industry, particularly in the process of selecting suppliers, and the weight given to occupational…