Ageing academics : workforce priorities for universities

Australia’s ageing academic workforce presents an unprecedented human resource crisis for its universities. In order to gain an insight into how universities are dealing with this significant HRM matter, this paper reports the extent to which academic staffing matters, specifically ageing of academics, are portrayed in the audit reports of the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) for 2006 - 2009. The purpose is to determine from these reports, whether universities are adopting HRM approaches that are reactive or proactive to an ageing academic workforce. It was found that there are university variations and only modest progress on academic staffing matters following AUQA Cycle 1 audit report recommendations. Overall, the HRM approaches by universities are reactive and ad-hoc, designed to respond to immediate needs and lack an organisational strategy to workforce planning. They exhibit an inconsistent and unstable pattern of adjustment to their internal and external environments, making them vulnerable in a competitive situation.22 page(s