Occupation-Based Life Expectancy: Actuarial Fairness in Determining Statutory Retirement Age

This study examines occupation-based differences in life expectancy and the extent to which health accounts for these differences. Twentyseven-year survival follow-up data were used from the Dutch population-based Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (n = 2,531), initial ages 55–85 years. Occupation was based on longest-held job. Results show that the non-skilled general, technical and transport domains had an up to 3.5-year shorter life expectancy than the academic professions, accounting for the compositional characteristics age and gender. Statutory retirement age could be made to vary accordingly, by allowing a proportionally greater pension build-up in the shorter-lived domains. Health accounted for a substantial portion of the longevity difference, ranging from 20 to 66%, depending on the health indicator. Thus, health differences between occupational domains today can be used as a means to tailor retirement ages to individuals’ risks of longevity. These data provide a proof of principle for the development of an actuarially fair method to determine statutory retirement ages.

The Academic Profession in Canada

There is little research on the socialization of doctoral students in Canada. Using data collected as part of the Canadian sample of the Academic Professions in the Knowledge Society project, this paper explores the reported doctoral experience of full-time academic faculty in Canadian universities who were ‘successfully’ socialized to the role of scholar, to find potential factors affecting doctoral experience and career progression. This paper suggests that financial and faculty support are key to doctoral success. With disciplinary nuance alive and thriving, many contemporary doctoral students may be subject to unfair disadvantages, which may be of the underlying reasons for high attrition from doctoral programs. Results indicate teaching continues to be an overlooked aspect of doctoral training, in favor of research; the associated faculty support which often accompanies research, along with the potential for funding for the research-related activity, may be a significant factor in socialization.

Masterpieces in an Inferno. Censorship in Cold War Translation Experiences (Micaela Ghițescu’s and Antoaneta Ralian’s Memoirs)

"The difficult problem of accurately translating both form and message takes a complicated turn when we refer to the translation of literature under Cold War totalitarian regimes. On the one hand, translation was a field in which many Romanian writers or prestigious intellectuals took refuge when banished from other cultural or academic professions. On the other hand, the system involved all along the phenomenon of censorship and self-censorship, literary purges and the organisation of secret funds. These political interferences that marked the translation process are discussed in the memoirs which serve as the focus of this paper."

Relevanz sprachlicher Kompetenzen im Anästhesistenberuf in Deutschland

This article aims to show the importance of multilingualism in academic education on the example of video-recorded interview between a foreign anaesthetist and her patient. As follows from the analysis of the transcript, the anaesthetist’s limited knowledge of German impairs her competence to conduct the conversation appropriately. This perspective on the professional context of app. 55.000 foreign doctors currently working in Germany shows the (medical and legal) relevance of mastering the national language in academic professions – especially in cases in which the communication between experts and laymen occurs on a daily basis.

Building Interprofessional Teams Through Partnerships to Address Quality

Interprofessional collaborative education and practice is essential in the current complex healthcare climate. Barriers to interprofessional education include difficulty scheduling joint activities amid the silos of discipline-specific curricula and the lack of urgency by faculty to find innovative ways to commit to interprofessional training. Barriers in practice include poor understanding of the roles of different professionals and lack of awareness of the concept because the people in the workforce were mostly educated before interprofessional practice and education were prioritized by national bodies representing academic professions. The author of this paper describes opportunities for interprofessional education and practice and describes a way to create an educational-practice partnership to drive quality in healthcare settings.

The Academic Professions and American Society

This chapter presents a portrait of the dominant system for organizing and pursuing knowledge and the contributions of that system to American life. It aims to convey some of the hidden strengths of the current system while revealing several of the vulnerabilities that have made it a target for those who would like to use it for more exclusively utilitarian purposes. While it is true that much academic research is intended for other academics, it is easy to miss the many unheralded ways that academic research informs public discourse, public policy, and organizational processes. The chapter then attempts to offer a more rounded picture of the contributions made by university researchers and educators than can be found in the critical literature.