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The proportion of academic staff over 66 years old has risen from 1.9 percent to 3.4 percent in the UK since 2011 when “default” compulsory retirement across all sectors was abolished. The latest UK statistics suggest that 1,475 academics over the age of 66 were working full-time last year compared to just 400 in 2011. On the other hand, some UK universities, including the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, have recently introduced rules that require academic staff to retire at the age of 67. The new rule employed by these universities, called an “employer justified retirement age,” leaves Oxford currently fighting a number of age discrimination claims.
Among a number of reasons, a desire from some to participate in science for longer could be responsible for later retirement among academics, with possible implications for the younger generation. While elderly scholars staying in academia ...
