Oxford academics fight plans for compulsory retirement

 Oxford University academics are challenging rules that would force them to retire at the age of 67.

Public debates over the retirement age have been described as a battle between “old white men... hanging on limpet-like to space and resource” and “talented young scholars” trying to get their first job, according to the Times Higher Education magazine.

It reported that academics have put forward a challenge to Oxford’s “employerjustified retirement age” (EJRA), which was introduced in 2011 after legislation was brought in scrapping the national default retirement age.

Bill Allan, 47, a tutorial fellow in classics at University College, described those nearing retirement age as “perhaps the most privileged generation ever in British academia”. He added: “How can you look your young post-docs and doctoral students in the eye, when by clinging to your post you are denying them an opportunity that could be a lifeline?”