There is a joke at Harvard University that the only things older than the fossils in its Museum of Natural History are the scholars in its classrooms. Tenured faculty are not required to retire, and at least 180 Harvard professors — including nearly 20 percent of those who teach undergraduates — are over 65.

Now for the first time, Harvard is offering incentives to its oldest academics to step down, clearing the way for younger replacements on lower salaries. Some of those ushered out will not be replaced as part of a strategy to reduce not only the faculty’s age, but also its size.

Although Harvard will not say how much the plan will save, the university lost 27 percent of its $37 billion (Rs.170,200 crore) endowment when the recession began last year. And while its finances seem to be recovering — some staff are even being promised modest pay rises this summer — the new scheme offers what administrators euphemistically call “faculty renewal”.

The new plan, according to Michael Smith, undergraduate dean at Harvard, is “a flexible programme that is responsive to the many different goals that faculty have shared with us”. Tenured scholars who have taught for at least ten years and are 65 or older by September 1, 2010 are eligible. That description covers 127 of the 720 professors in the faculty of arts and sciences (18 percent), plus more than 50 others in Harvard’s medical, divinity, public health and education schools, which are making the retirement option available.

Academics who have until June 30 to sign up, can choose to stop teaching at the end of this academic year and receive a one-year paid sabbatical, or wait two years and teach one out of every two semesters until then. Alternatively, they can work for another four years, at their full salary for the first year and half salary for the next three, teaching full time and receiving full retirement benefits. The generous terms are likely to pare the ranks of Harvard’s oldest staff in what spokesman Jeff Neal called “a positive development for faculty considering retirement and the faculty of arts and sciences”.

The programme is voluntary and there are no estimates of how many staff will leave. University officials say the savings, if any, would be long term: Harvard’s undergraduate division alone still faces a $110 million (Rs.506 crore) budget shortfall for next year. So far, one 74-year-old professor of history has said he will accept the offer.

Full professors at Harvard earned an average of $192,600 (Rs.88.6 lakh) last year, according to the American Association of University Professors, the largest academic union in the US.

(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)