The number of United States professors aged 65 years and older is growing. This older professor presents the stories of four teaching experiences which belong to the larger story of faculty longevity during the past five decades and its subsequent conflicts with retirement. The first was in the 1960s, when she was a new professor, not much older…

The purpose of this paper is to find out what academics do when approaching retirement, and why; as well as to reflect on the process and consequences of reaching a retirement decision -- for themselves, the university system, and the wider community. Our study concentrates on baby boomers, as this large cohort starts to retire or become eligible…

Recent studies argue that in the next 5 years, the higher education sector will see half to two-thirds of its academic workforce leave the academy due to retirement, career burnout, or job dissatisfaction. This study surveyed over 100 working academics in Australia, North America, and the United Kingdom to determine their aspirations for remaining…

The population of the United States is getting older. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), older workers -- which the BLS defines as those who are 55 and older -- made up 22% of the U.S. workforce in 2016, nearly double the 12% recorded in 1995. This increase is largely "fueled by the aging baby-boom generation, a large…

During the 1960s, there was extensive hiring of college and university faculty members. This large group of professors are now at or nearing retirement age. Concerns about the economy, the availability of good health insurance, increased life expectancy, and removal of mandatory retirement laws may influence decisions about when to retire.…

The silver tide of faculty retirement continues to ebb and flow. While much of today's scholarship on faculty retirement focuses on the financial implications for colleges and universities, arguing that older faculty members clog up the faculty pipeline, cost more in salary and benefits, and are ineffective teachers who fear technology, little…

The lived experiences of eight Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) university presidents and chancellors in North America revealed the racism and discrimination these Asian academic executives faced and provided counternarratives to dismantle a White normative perspective. While these executive stories were meant to be understood as a…

Within some areas of traditional legal education there has been discussion of and advocacy for greater acceptance and integration of online technology. This study addresses the enormous gap in the legal literature concerning perceptions of online legal education and adds to the robust body of literature concerning perceptions of online education…

Based on in-depth interviews, surveys and autoethnography we explore ways in which staff responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in three Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) based in Kenya (University of Nairobi), Mexico (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur) and the United Kingdom (University of Leeds). HEIs are dependent on staff's resilience and goodwill…

The information technology (IT) workforce serves many vital functions in higher education, supporting campus computing needs ranging from advanced research and business and administrative operations to student learning and technology needs. As IT becomes an increasingly important part of the success of higher education, it is equally important to…

With the elimination of mandatory retirement, the average age of college and university faculty members has increased. While this has raised some concerns, relatively little research has tried to measure the impact of this aging on productivity inside the classroom. Using data from the RateMyProfessors.com website for a large sample of instructors…

This research study is a phenomenological exploration of academics from one Canadian university who either are participating in a phased retirement program or have delayed their retirement beyond the normal retirement age of 65. It is based on face-to-face interviews with 24 professors, male and female, between the ages of 55 and 69, from an array…

The importance of skills within the transformation of higher education is a crucial factor that has been insufficiently considered. Transformation in terms of higher education forms a fundamental part of the post-apartheid South African society. This transformation movement seems to exclude the possible role and contributions of the older…

The graying of community college leadership is an issue across the country. More than half of all community college presidents expect to retire in five years, according to data from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Succession planning is yet another opportunity for colleges already navigating a variety of reforms to innovate.…

For individuals with strong work identities, the decision to retire can be particularly challenging. For academic physicians, retirement is an important personal decision that also has far-reaching implications for the healthcare system. This is because academic physicians are responsible for producing the research from which key medical decisions…