Should older academics be forced to retire?

Diversity used to bring to mind initiatives about encouraging more women to take up science. But increasingly, following changes to the retirement age and faced with an increasingly older UK workforce, chemists are starting to pay attention to ageism in the workplace.

Around 30% of the UK workforce is currently aged 50 or over. In 2010, the Equality Act made it unlawful to discriminate against employees or job seekers due to a set of protected characteristics which included age. This was followed in 2011 by additional legislation which abolished the compulsory retirement age. For those managing academic departments, this meant a new way of working.