Monday 22nd December 2014 - Towards retirement

Impressions often count more than reality.  A consequence of my blog on 4 December, when I pointed out that the advertisement for my successor as Deputy Vice-Chancellor had now been published, was that many people have assumed that I am retiring and leaving the University.  Re-reading that blog, I found I never used the word 'retiring' or 'retirement' in it.  I talked about a chapter towards ending my academic career, but not to an actual date.

So in the period since 4 December I have been explaining to a lot of people that what I will be doing will be stepping down from the University's Executive Board, 'retiring' from it, but not 'retiring' completely.  There are still research papers to be completed, a possible textbook to be written, a research student to see through to completion, a number of national level committees to attend, various other projects to maintain, and perhaps (who knows) even some more teaching to do.  In other words, I expect still to be active within the university once my successor is in post.  BUT, I intend to leave it to him or her to get on with their new job, rather than carping from the sidelines or continuously meddling in their activities.

I am in the first recent generation not to be given a fixed retirement age.  But the period when that applied was actually quite short.  Both my grandfathers worked well beyond the age of 65.  One was a printer doing night shifts who kept them up until he was 70; the other was a shipyard inspector of rivets who was forced to retire short before his 70th birthday as a result of the bronchitis he had developed through working in very poor conditions on Tyneside.  On the other hand, my father 'was retired' at the age of 60 from his then job in human resources at the BBC - although he was relieved to get out of the hour-long commute from our house in West London to an office close to Broadcasting House.

So, to repeat, I will not be retiring from the University later this spring, but stepping down from the Executive Board (after what will by then be at least 11 years on it or its predecessor).  What am I looking forward to most?  Not having to oversee the major admissions decisions in the middle of August; catching up with academic reading in my field; and spending more time in Coffee Revolution.

Thursday 4th December 2014 - Replacement

I suppose it's time for me to start humming a very famous tune by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux.  There are many other cliches that come to mind (incidentally, it appears to be impossible to add accents to letters in Blogger!).

I was helping another university with a senior appointment today and they had already seen it on the internet. Many others will do so over the next few days, or will see it in the paper, or will hear others talk about it.

Today has been the day when the public advertisement for my replacement as Deputy Vice-Chancellor has been published.  In some ways it's the beginning of the end - or certainly of the final chapter for me as a member of the university's executive board.  I'm not sure how I feel about that yet.  I've actually been too busy in the last few weeks really to think about it.  That has prevented me starting the process of looking back over what I have had a hand in achieving, but it has also meant that I haven't yet started to think about what I will miss and what I won't.  

So what is that tune by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux?  Paul Anka changed the words from the original French so that in the English-speaking world it's no longer known as Comme d'Habitude - instead it's 'My Way'.