Retirement
Make Way
16/08/10 14:39 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
With the disappearance of mandatory retirement, a debate is growing as to whether younger scholars' careers are blocked by their older (and tenured) professors. S. Pelech observes that the tenure debate has been ranging long before mandatory retirement was abolished in many countries and that tenure permits university faculty to tackle riskier research that can lead to scientific breakthroughs. Read More...
A Return to Decency
20/05/11 23:57 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
William Deresiewicz at The Nation wrote that because there are too many PhDs for the number of academic jobs available, they are "cheaper to hire and easier to fire, and save institutions money. Dr. Deresiewicz suggests that tenured professors need to speak out and spear-head initiatives to create better opportunities for new faculty with longer term prospects. S. Pelech comments that it is untenable that university or government lab positions could or should be available for the vast majority, and that industry has to be able to employ these highly trained and skilled individuals. Academic institutes and government agencies should be facilitating the ability of entrepreneurial professors to create companies rather than erecting barriers that stifle such activities, for example, on the basis of conflict of interest. Read More...
Trim or 'Fatten' the Pyramid?
02/11/11 13:58 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Jennifer Rohn at Mind the Gap summarized a recent round table discussion that highlighted significant structural problems and instabilities in the academic workforce, and differing opinions on how to deal with the issue, including restriction into entry, training graduates better for industry or encouraging early academic career retirement. S. Pelech concurs that there are too many scientists at present and we are training new investigators at a faster rate than ever before, which is exacerbating the problem. However, the solution is not to encourage early retirement of senior scientists, but rather to increase in private-public partnerships to foster the growth of jobs in the biotech/biopharma industry. Read More...
Extended Employment
14/03/12 18:33 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Virginia Gewin in Nature suggested that "academics who delay retirement could create roadblocks for early-career researchers." Graeme Hugo at the University of Adelaide in Australia told Gewin that more than half of the academic workforce is over 50 years old, but while around 40 percent of that workforce may retire in the next decade, the vacated permanent posts are being divided into contractual, non-tenure-track jobs. S. Pelech comments that the current supply of academic scientists is probably optimal for the good of the general public at present and in the near future. He points out that more experienced active scientists should be better at undertaking and successfully completing more challenging research projects than junior investigators, and also be better educators with their more extensive knowledge-base. Read More...