Academia's own demographic time-bomb

Abstract

It’s no news that Australian academics, like Australian cricketers, are getting older (and perhaps tireder). But the exact dimensions of the sector’s staffing crisis haven’t been clear. Graham Hugo has been studying the figures in detail, and he suggests that the problem may in fact be worse than has been thought. Around a quarter of the academic workforce will retire in the next decade, and there’s a ‘lost generation’ where their replacements should be.