point of view
“The final years of one’s career can be mortifying for some”
The education researchers Peter Tremp and Annette Tettenborn had planned to compile a book in which researchers talk about their personal experiences of retirement. But it never got off the ground. Now they’re planning a book on the topic with contributions from specialists.
Annette Tettenborn is the head of the Institute for Career and Teaching Research at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne. | Photo: Matthias Jurt / PH Luzern
Annette Tettenborn, you’re investigating retirement from the academy. Why do we need such a book?
Because this transition is part of one’s professional academic biography. Only a few research groups exist that are engaging with this passage of status from a sociological perspective. But it’s a topic with a promising future because universities are changing and are today also entrepreneurially orientated. For some, academia is still a way of life and a vocation – but in this context, that can seem almost outdated. We’re interested in the effects of the tension that these developments are causing.
Why didn’t the book work out that you’d originally planned, with individual contributions from academics?
A few wanted to take part, but the majority wrote to us to say: “It’s a really great project, but I don’t have the time. I’m working on publications and I still have doctoral students to supervise. Sometimes they also mentioned commitments with grandchildren.
They are presumably emeritus faculty. What percentage do they make up out of all the retired academics?
I don’t know that. But the figures at the Federal Statistical Office reveal that the proportion of those over 65 years old who are still working at universities has been increasing for some time. The status of emeritus staff varies from university to university. At the University of Zurich, for example, you become emeritus at 65 but still have your institutional e-mail address and access to statistics programmes or literature until you are 70. But what do people do when all that ends? What happens to their ‘academic self’? Such questions arise even before that.
What do you mean by that?
They’re no longer being invited to sit on appointment committees, for example, or are no longer consulted about decisions on the strategic development of their university. These matters are decided by the younger generation – which is a good thing. One’s final years in academia can also bring about situations that some find mortifying. Or at least unpleasant. But we also find that the opposite can apply: suddenly, you’re asked for a lot of peer reviews or references, or you’re invited to sit on university councils. That’s because retired people have more time.
Is this loss of status a taboo topic?
That’s putting it too strongly. This transition can also mean gaining something new. But a lot of people don’t like dealing with the process of detaching oneself and saying goodbye. What actually tends to be taboo is the topic of older researchers who just can’t let go, and who continue to do things that are now really beyond them.
What room for manoeuvre for retirees would you find reasonable?
They’ve got many years of expertise and have an experienced view of the things that are happening at universities, the developments that are accelerating and coming to a head. Universities would do well to keep utilising that knowledge.
