Career's End: A Survey of Faculty Retirement Policies (original) (raw)
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Faculty Retirement Policies after the End of Mandatory Retirement
2001
As the average age of faculty members at colleges and universities in the United States continues to increase, retirement policies and programs in higher education are playing an increasingly important role in maintaining and enhancing the productivity of faculty members of all ages. This issue of Research Dialogue summarizes the results of a 2000 survey of higher education institutions regarding their programs and policies that affect faculty retirement. In addition to analyzing survey data regarding early retirement incentive arrangements and other programs designed to help faculty make the transition to retirement, the authors also review and discuss the experiences of the surveyed institutions following the elimination of mandatory retirement.
Faculty Emeriti: Retirement Reframed
2010
With the graying of the professoriate continuing and the massive number of baby boomers entering retirement age, universities and college administrations need to adequately prepare for retirement. This is beginning to cause some staffing shortages in the faculty pipeline as well as the loss of institutional history and professional knowledge. Unlike many employing organizations, most institutions of higher education provide some sort of opportunity for its retired employees to remain connected to the institution. For retired faculty, this often comes in the form of the emeriti status rank. The overwhelming majority of faculty retirement research is focused on how institutions will manage the economic implications of retirement, particularly on retirement benefits and the financial costs to the institution. There has been little scholarship investigating the perspective of retirement from the individual and even less research in recent years. Recently retired faculty may have different expectations about retirement and the level of relationship they have with their former institution. This research examines this topic further. This qualitative study contributes to the higher education literature by providing an in-depth analysis of 14 faculty emeriti from a large, land grant institution who retired within the past two to five years, explored their relationship with their former institution. Using the literature about adult development and the professoriate, a semi-structured, in-depth interview protocol was developed. Data analysis was conducted using a grounded theory approach, with an emphasis on thematic findings. The resulting six main themes were: (1) the “nudge” toward retirement (motivating factors influencing the retirement decisions), (2) “no one owns your time”, (3) the unexpected (unanticipated events in retirement), (4) the continuity of scholarship activities, (5) new pathways in retirement, and (6) elements of the departmental and institutional relationship with the emeriti. With these findings in mind as well as the previous literature, two categories of faculty, the Attached and the Unattached, and their sub-types were identified which provide a better understanding of faculty emeriti and the level of involvement, if any, they may wish to have with their former institution and department. A new transitional phase model of faculty retirement was created which provides a reframing of previous transition models. Three types of involvement opportunities and several institutional exemplars are discussed that can foster emeriti involvement. The results may be beneficial for informing institutional policy, especially for human resource management, academic deans and department chairs. Lastly, there may be additional benefits for the retired faculty including greater satisfaction in retirement, improved mental and physical health, increased social networks, support for new endeavors and a continuation of their scholarship.
1997
This study examined retirement and other departure plans of full-and part-time faculty and staff in higher education institutions using data from the 1988 and 1993 National Studies of Postsecondary Faculty. Among the study's findings were: 22 percent of full-time and 38 percent of part-time faculty planned to leave their current position within the next three years; 57 percent of full-time faculty and staff planned to retire between the ages of 60 and 70; 28 percent of full-time faculty and staff indicated a willingness to take early retirement; and differences in retirement plans existed by gender, race/ethnicity, academic field, and type and control of institution. The study concluded that institutional policies such as early retirement incentives and part-time employment options may alter employees' retirement plans and behavior. Individual sections of the report detail the study's findings on: characteristics of full-time and part-time instructional faculty and staff; retirement and other separation and mobility plans; mobility to a job not in postsecondary education; expected retirement age or age when planning to leave postsecondary education; and interest in early retirement options. Appended are technical notes, standard error tables, and the survey questionnaires. (DB)
Annual Meeting of the …, 2009
Retirement is of interest to faculty members and university administrators alike, but almost no studies have explored the predictors of academic retirements using longitudinal data. We respond to this gap in the literature using the nationally representative 1981-2003 Surveys of Doctorate Recipients. Family characteristics have large effects on retirement flows. Individuals at non-research-intensive schools have higher retirement rates, as do whites and Hispanics. Gender has no effect on academic retirements. We conclude with our plans for future research.
The Context for Reinventing Academic Retirement
New Directions for Higher Education, 2018
Academic retirement is evolving in a larger context where coalescing demographic, economic, social, and policy trends are calling standard practice into question.
No Longer Forced out: How One Institution Is Dealing with the End of Mandatory Retirement
1999
Why should academic institutions or their faculty care about the end of mandatory retirement for tenured faculty, which became effective in January 1994? From the perspective of an individual tenured faculty member who wants to continue her career beyond age seventy, the elimination is a welcome event. In the past, faculty members who wanted to remain active after reaching seventy had to negotiate their status with institutions that were under no legal obligation to allow them to continue. Now, however, tenured faculty members have the legal right to continue indefinitely in their tenured appointments. From the point of view of an academic institution, the elimination imposes two types of costs. First, to the extent that some faculty members at an institution postpone their retirements, the flow of new faculty into an institution will diminish. Fewer new hires means fewer faculty with fresh perspectives and ideas. Fewer new hires also reduces an institution's ability to diversify its faculty along gender, racial, and ethnic lines. And fewer new hires can make it difficult for an institution to shift faculty resources into exciting new areas of inquiry. Second, retirements generate funds for salary increases for continuing faculty, because most full professors are replaced by lower-paid assistant professors. The difference between the salary of a retiring full professor and that of his replacement can be distributed to other faculty members in the form of salary increases. Postponement of retirements at an institution reduces the amount of such funds available in a year, and the institution must either make up the difference with other funds or reduce the salary increase that it provides for its faculty.
Retirement Plans for College Faculty at Public Institutions
Financial Services Review, 2008
This study provides a base line cross sectional analysis of defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) retirement plans based on the largest four-year public institutions of higher education in each of the 50 states. The focus is on types of plans that are being offered and an evaluation of their risk and return. Findings pnwide comparative analysis on the broader trends in DB and DC plans offered by other public and private plans.