The end of the academic career? A qualitative study on the status passage to professorial retirement

• Applicants: Dr. Oliver Berli; Professorin Dr. Julia Reuter
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405775657

Current research on academic careers shows a strong emphasis on questions of access to and success in the academic field. This is especially true when it focusses on academic careers in Germany. In comparison, research on later career developments of university professors, e.g. changing university or age-related retirement is relatively neglected. Based on this observation the project “The end of the academic career? A qualitative study on the status passage to professorial retirement” deals with this relevant research gap by investigating the (age-related) retirement of university professors. In particular, we are interested in the entanglements of practices and regulations related to their retirement, the individual handling of and coming to terms with this status passage. Since little has been empirically researched on this topic, our project follows a qualitative approach in order to be open, flexible and adaptive.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants