University strikes down mandatory retirement
March 23, 2007 – Edmonton – The University of Alberta Board of Governors voted to eliminate mandatory retirement for academic staff today, allowing professors to continue to work and teach beyond the age of 65.
If ratified by the Association of Academic Staff: University of Alberta (AAS:UA) the policy will become effective June 30, 2007. The policy will help the university attract and retain the brightest minds, says U of A Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Dr. Carl Amrhein.
“It will allow us to more easily retain some of our very senior professors who find a mandatory retirement policy unattractive,” he said. “It should help in the recruitment of people who have no real idea of what they’re going to do at 65, but just like to have options. And I think it’ll bring an important level of stability to our academic situation comparable to the best in the class. There are not many institutions of our calibre that still have mandatory retirement.”
Amrhein added that the financial impact of this change will likely be minimal and easy for the university to manage.
The policy brings the U of A in line with that of most Canadian universities and makes the university more competitive in Canada, said AAS:UA President Dr. David Johnston.
“There’s a practical aspect as well., If we did not eliminate it, let’s suppose we have really good people who are 55 or 58. They might decide to go to Calgary or Toronto and depart. Obviously, if you have your choice between seven more years or 10 or 12 more years, you’d take advantage of going to a place that doesn’t have mandatory retirement,” he said.
“It’s also partly a retention issue, because given the demographics and what we know about Alberta’s economy and the plans for the university, we need all the best people we can get, and the people who are good we want to keep.”
Last spring, during academic staff contract talks, the university struck a taskforce made up of members from both the AAS:UA and university administration to look at the issues around mandatory retirement. Amrhein says today’s vote was “the natural follow-up” to the task force’s report.
“We recognize that today’s life and work environments are very different from a number of years ago,” said Amrhein. “People are living longer and want to continue contributing. Those who perform a positive service to the university beyond the age of 65 are important to the needs of our growing university.”
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