Abstract
This study compares the professional activities of retired professors from liberal arts colleges, a comprehensive university, and a major research university. Results show that a large majority of faculty continue to perform professional roles and that strength of ties to colleagues and professional organizations outside the institution are correlated with professional activity at all types of institutions. Major differences among institutions are: (1) liberal arts college and research university faculty show consistency between pre- and postretirement professional activity levels, whereas comprehensive university faculty do not; (2) university faculty show higher levels of participation in a number of professional activities than do liberal arts college faculty; (3) rated importance of “research or other creative work” is related to professional activity for comprehensive university faculty and rated importance of “consulting” and “university service” are related to professional activity for research university faculty.
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Dorfman, L.T., Conner, K.A., Tompkins, J.B. et al. Retired professors and professional activity: A comparative study of three types of institutions. Res High Educ 17, 249–266 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00976702
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00976702