But the shock of the coronavirus has exposed a longer-standing problem – the greying of the Kiwi professoriate. The difficulties faced by young academics today were exacerbated by the abolition of compulsory retirement in New Zealand in 1999. Youth-adjacent faculty should be open to new ways to teach. Today’s academy is organised into rigidly delineated disciplines that really worked for yesteryear’s stable work conditions. Today’s Kiwi academy permits interdisciplinary work to happen, but it’s clearly not a priority.

Source: Stuff March 17, 2021 16:00 UTC