Blocking the Baby Boomer Brain Drain in Universities

Abstract

This paper will focus on the group of people who were born between 1946 and 1962 immediately after the Second World War when service men and women returned from the forces and started families. They have been named baby boomers because of their numbers. In Australia it is estimated that there are four million baby boomers who are now approaching a retirement age. The significance of this has been described as “a demographic time bomb” (Nicolson & Phillips, 1990). In USA the number of workers over the age of 45 will increase by 83% up to 2020 whilst those aged 25-44 will drop by 9%, and 20% of the American workforce will be over 55 by 2005. In Australia it is believed that 16% of the population will be over 65 years of age by 2016. This paper raises the question of whether the attitudes and policies we have about older workers especially in universities, needs to change and mature. Evidence for questioning entrenched myths about older staff in the work force will be discussed.