Retired academics and professional activity: A British-American comparison

This study investigated the professional activities of retired academics from two old civic universities in Great Britain, and compared the findings to those of recent studies of retired academics from a major state university in the United States (Dorfman, 1980, 1981). A high degree of similarity was found between the two groups of academics: (1) a large majority continued to perform professional roles and participate in professional activities in retirement; (2) there was a striking degree of consistency between pre- and postretirement professional activity levels; (3) the most consistent predictors of both total level and rate of professional activity in retirement were level of professional activity during the preretirement career and ties to professional organizations outside the University.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the thirteenth International Congress of Gerontology, New York City, July 1985.