At your university, do older professors give up teaching or doing research to give younger professors a chance, or do they keep teaching or doing research because they are able too.
At my university, older professors do both teaching and research work till they retire and after that they don't stop research work and consultation as their interest and curiosity don't stop. The long years of experience are important for both.
I think after an age professor every where retire but teaching and research are the profession where effectiveness grow by age so it's not about giving younger a chance, they in general attached to the University till they wish and guide younger colleges.
There are very few old profs who like to keep researching. Most would like to "get out". The new profs would have different research preferences, so the current research effort stops, but a new one starts.
Unfortunately, the concept of grooming the next generation is not the culture in our Universities. They keep teaching till retirement. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that once the senior Profs build a reputation,they also become complacent and do not regularly update what they teach.
At my university only 2-3% old professors are contributing, others assigned work are carried by young blood
No. Older professors do teaching and younger do both teaching and research.
At my university every professor has a teaching load, research expectations and service component Age is not what determines who does how much teaching.
There are some subjects where surely age might have a negative effect on research, although in Science Hawkings and Penrose continued and continue until old age. Einstein's greatest contributions were when young although Rutherford remained productive throughout his career providing immense support to younger scientists such as Chadwick and Bohr.
In areas such as Classics, Literature and History older professors continue to provide revealing hypothesis, but whether they are open to new ideas is another matter.
Unfortunately at my university older professors do not have the luxury of giving up teaching and concentrating on research as the major activity. We all have to do 300 teaching hours a year, from assistant professor to full professors with tenure. And since we miss teaching staff, it usually turnd out to be even 50% more teaching hours...i have to admit, at certain age 😁 teaching and especially all acompanying administration is something I would gladly give away to someone younger..
Are academics in a real danger, going by many of the remarks here, and with particular reference to Mirna, of becoming teachers only? That does seem a likely future!
Is interested in supervising the PhD ... and less number of hours of teaching
No, not at all. They still go to class to teach. Others only assist them when need arises. We need their wealth of experience in the class. When you are taught by these experienced professors, you get more than just knowledge of the course but better approach about the course with real life examples out of their wealth of experiences.
They do both. They get engaged in both teaching and research in collaboration with other younger lecturers.
I totally agree with dear Professor Ivo Carneiro de Sousa. His contribution expresses what goes in my mind after a long career at universities & schools.
The continuous external interference of nearly "ignorant" persons (may be denoted as witch hunt) in the work of experienced scholars can lead to disastrous effects in the academia discouraging enthusiasm for work. Its analogy is: climbing an "ultimately failing" ladder that is made of human skulls.
Unfortunately our professors after 65 year or maximum 67 years cannot be included in teaching process.
Yes it is big problem and the result is: discontinuity in clinical praxis and sciences.
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