More Thoughts of Retirement…
Now that I’m back home from campus after work, and have access to this blog once again, I thought I’d share a little ethical question with you.
Less than a year ago, while I was in Barcelona, I posted an item about looking forward to retirement. Here are two paragraphs from that piece:
The fact of the matter is, though, that I can’t afford to retire yet. I have a mortgage to pay and I’ve only had five full years of pensionable service in the Irish system, so won’t get much of a pension. I have the frozen residue of my UK pension, of course, but that is subject to an actuarial reduction if I take the benefit before I’m 65, which is also the standard retirement age for academic staff in Ireland. I can’t be made to retire here until I’m 70, in fact, but I think I’ll be well beyond my best-before date by then and am not keen to overstay my welcome.
So it looks like I’ll have to stay until I’m 65 at the earliest. In fact I won’t be able to collect the State Pension (SPC) until I’m 66, so I’ll probably have to stay another year. That means that when I get back from sabbatical I will have four or five years left until I can retire. I don’t know what I’ll be teaching when I return but I hope I get a chance to teach a few new modules before the end. In particular some cosmology or astrophysics would be particularly nice. All this is predicated on: (a) me living long enough; and (b) Physics at Maynooth not being closed down; neither of these is certain.
Since I posted this I have made a firm decision that I will retire as soon as I’m able, which should be in June 2028. This is partly because I recently had a health scare which, though it is now seemingly resolved, has persuaded me not to take (a) for granted. There are things I’d like to do before I pop my clogs and I won’t be able to do them while still in full-time employment. I’ve done some calculations and should be able to pay off my mortgage early, perhaps even by the end of this year.
Anyway, this led me to the following ethical question, to which different colleagues have had different responses.
A PhD in Ireland typically takes a minimum of 4 years. That means that if I were to take on a new PhD student next academic year (starting in September 2025) then less than three years would pass before I would retire. If a member of staff is less than 4 years from retirement should they decline all PhD supervision requests?
Opinions through the Comments Box please!
PS. My two current students will both have completed well before 2028.
PPS. Another question is who would take over the Open Journal of Astrophysics…
In the Dark 
September 16, 2024 at 8:24 pm
Speaking as someone who retired 2 weeks ago (but is still keeping on some teaching commitments at UCC): The question is whether you are personally prepared to see the new PhDs through to completion despite your being retired. Be selfish: Do you want to do this or don’t you? It’s up to you – but if you agree to do it, treat it as a serious commitment, whatever else you are doing. Ignore questions of your health, that’s impossible to plan for.
September 17, 2024 at 8:20 am
I agree. Peter needs more info to make his decision: specifically, to check that if he retires (i.e. from lecturing and admin) but is willing to see a PhD student through 4 years, then Maynooth will play ball.
Likewise, why give up OJA in retirement? You need an understood heir for the event of your death more than for your retirement from academia.
September 17, 2024 at 8:57 am
The publisher of OJA is Maynooth University and it’s not obvious they will continue to support it when I leave.
September 17, 2024 at 10:41 pm
Start by developing mirror sites?
September 16, 2024 at 9:00 pm
I retired 6 years ago, but remained active in a research project on a voluntary (unpaid) basis for about two days a week. Although I had refused to take a new PhD student because of my retirement, this project became so successful that they moved a PhD student to me from an unsuccessful project. She finished her PhD in June last year. In loved being free from other obligations and it was a wonderful way to gradually go from a working life to retirement. And it was really fun to still work with these young people!
September 16, 2024 at 11:27 pm
My son was partway through a PhD (not astrophysics) when his supervisor got a job in another country. Similar ethical question. He suffered enormously from this disruption and in fact didn’t complete.
September 17, 2024 at 9:00 am
I have moved quite a few times in my career, and it has always been an issue for students “left behind”. Only rarely do they want to move with the supervisor and, especially in the pre-Zoom era, remote supervision was difficult. That’s a different matter though to taking on a new student when you know at the outset that you’re going to be leaving.
September 17, 2024 at 12:53 am
My feeling is that PhD supervisors should plan to commit to the minimum time period for their students and, if job changes make this impossible, they should at least stay in touch and provide advice.
I was partway through a PhD (in Cosmology) when my supervisor got a job at another University and dropped me like a stone. He contacted me only once after he had left, to request that I send a book he had leant to me back to him. In the end I failed to complete and the whole debacle seriously affected my confidence and mental health for over a decade afterwards.
September 17, 2024 at 9:13 am
At UCL, and I’m sure many other Universities, PhD students have a secondary supervisor. If the primary supervisor retires, dies or moves elsewhere, the secondary supervisor is there to take the reins. I retired last year, and would not have done so with a PhD student still to complete. But I did have a couple of students where I was secondary supervisor, where I guess I was guilty of abandoning them. However, both were close to finishing and both have recently completed.
September 17, 2024 at 9:32 am
The idea of having a secondary supervisor is a good one, but it’s not easy to make it work in a very small Department.
September 17, 2024 at 11:22 am
I think this is largely an issue for a department, since staff may always get new jobs at short notice, or alas die unexpectedly. There should always be someone ready to go who can step in if such circumstances arise. All our students have at least 2 supervisors for this reason. I’m older than you, so I wrestle with the same issue – but am solving it by making sure that I now only take on students where I’m sharing the supervision with someone else who is fully engaged on the project.
If it’s a very small department and no suitable understudy can be found, I would advise finding a suitable colleague in another university who would agree to act at least informally should that be needed. Another thing to bear in mind is that we don’t give postgraduates so much of our time – nor should they need it in the later stages of a PhD. In years 3 & 4, a single weekly meeting should be more than enough to keep things on the rails, and you could surely still provide that level of contact even if you were retired from all other university duties?
September 17, 2024 at 11:39 am
Peter, you have not made it clear if you plan to fully retire – i.e. leave astrophysics (and Maynooth?) behind and do other stuff, such as travelling – or continue to do some work as an Emeritus Prof but just not be paid for it. I assume that Maynooth like other universities has ‘retired’ professors and other academic staff who still have office space (even just a desk in an office), computer/library access etc, and do research and maybe even some teaching. (We have retired staff still working more than a decade after they retired; the record for us is about 25 years, I think).
If you do want to continue then that is a discussion you should probably have now with management and if they are agreeable then you could take on a student. If you don’t wish to continue – or management say no! – then I don’t think you should take on someone. Yes, there are second supervisors who in theory can continue the supervision, but unless the topic is really one they are familiar with – unlikely in a small department – that is difficult.
September 17, 2024 at 12:24 pm
My plan at the moment is to do a full-time MA in Linguistics at UCD so I will stay in Maynooth but won’t have time to be a full-time supervisor. Emeritus professors at Maynooth do not have office space.
September 18, 2024 at 10:45 am
I was going to ask a similar question to this about Emeritus Prof. Just about all the professors from my time as a Research student at QMW have this status now, if around at all, and wondered if received a partial salary to continue to just research, and mentor research students if wanted too.
I am actively preparing retirement myself. Fortunately paid off mortgage about two years ago, and now pumping as much as possible into pension pot. I should reach my target pension early next year but will probably continue 4 day week if company agrees until a significant other is available. Then hope to be travelling the world with her.
September 18, 2024 at 11:59 am
Well, emeritus status is not up to me and there’s no guarantee I would get it. I suspect I may have ruffled too many feathers.
I was thinking of asking to reduce my hours before retirement, but the problem is that we don’t have any form of workload allocation model here and I think I’d probably just be told to carry on my existing workload for a fraction of the pay.
September 18, 2024 at 12:47 pm
Going to a four day week, if I can get it, isn’t without risk to me either because in the redundancy waves at my company, a high percentage of people laid off were ones on reduced hours. Before asking for that will make sure have enough in the pot, and the redundancy package an useful extra.
September 18, 2024 at 12:54 pm
I think Emeritus Prof means different things now at different universities. At some its just an honorary title, others it gives you access to desk, phone, IT services etc. At the ones where its just a title they may have some ‘Honorary Visiting Prof’ scheme or otherwise that does provide full access to facilities. (And its likely you would have to apply for it and have a work programme).
The other thing is staged retirement – which we have at my institute. You have to apply for it, and involves staged reduction in your FTE over a fixed period. If such a scheme exists at Maynooth you might consider it – and if it doesn’t, perhaps suggest one! The important thing with the staged retirement is make it very clear in the application what exactly you will do – or are willing to do – during your reduced FTE time commitment.
September 18, 2024 at 3:02 pm
The meaning in this particular case is clearly explained by Stephen Leacock in his book Here are my Lectures:
“I am what is called a professor emeritus – from the Latin e meaning “out”, and meritus meaning “ought to be”.
September 17, 2024 at 12:14 pm
Co-supervision is the usual answer. There should be someone who can take over seamlessly.
As for financing the retirement and the future of OJA, the obvious answer is to sell the journal and live off the proceeds! But I expect that would raise ethical objections..
September 17, 2024 at 12:30 pm
There is also the small issue that I don’t actually *own* OJA!
September 21, 2024 at 9:39 pm
Hope whatever it was that was resolved, stays resolved…
If you wish to supervise PhD students, and there are prospective students who want to work with you, and the university regulations allow it — then why not? (My university regulations would not allow it, but are open to the collaboration without formal supervision .)
Looking through the Opening Publishing at Maynooth University page, the other three journals seem all very different from each other (and from OJA) but long-term support must concern them too. Do they have a plan for when the managing editor retires? Or maybe they would help draft such a plan?